As new leader of the All Basotho Convention (ABC), Nkaku Kabi is under no illusions as to the challenge of filling the big boots of larger than life erstwhile leader Thomas Thabane. The brutally honest and straight talking Kabi who exudes confident simplicity is undaunted, though, and he believes that – notwithstanding normal glitches here and there – a fresh mandate is in the offing for the party, come October 2022.
As senior partner in the coalition government, the ABC has surely been there and done that. How do think it has fared in implementing its vision, such that it deserves a fresh mandate?
We want a peaceful Lesotho led by a government that delivers on its promises to the masses, especially poverty reduction, creation of jobs for young people, and confronting brutal killings that are turning our people against each other. Yes. there are a few challenges that we haven’t really met and going forward into the next term. We hope to continue where we have left off in terms of what we had as a party had promised Basotho. For instance, we had promise to lower the official old age from 70 to 60 years. Although we have managed to address some of the problems of textile factory workers, we still feel that there is a lot we need to continue to pursue for the benefit of Basotho.
Then there is block farming which we tried to the best of our ability to implement. But of course we encountered impediments but we are wiser now and know how to rectify our mistakes. Resuscitating block farming is not negotiable.
Demarcation of constituencies. It has caused an uproar in the political arena. What is ABC’s positions on this matter?
I think that one is not about ABC having a position, it’s about the law itself. When the population grows and we have over 10,000 people in an area, there has to be demarcation. That’s what the IEC prescribes, that immediately after reaching the 10,000 mark you break those constituencies. It has brought some controversy because the stronghold of the movement is in the mountains and they feel that we are doing that in urban areas to maximize our chances of having more constituencies and that’s not true. Everybody should just stick to the law as it is.
One issue that has always topped the agenda in Lesotho is poverty and unemployment, especially youth unemployment. How successful has the ABC government been addressing it and what are its plans to strengthen its achievements?
There have been attempts to try and empower the youth but it hasn’t been really as effective as one would wish it to be in terms of involving the youth in poverty eradication and self-reliance initiatives. As I always say with agriculture, we import so much that we spend over M20-billion on imports, in the process creating jobs in other countries that supply us with food. Yet we have soil that we could use to produce our own food. Going forward, our goal is to try and engage the youth in projects that would enable us to stop importing food.
We have seen an escalation of corruption in recent years. This has led to people losing confidence and trust in politicians as well as interest in political affairs. How does the ABC plan revive the people’s interest in national affairs, especially elections?
First, I think we have to get into the ministry of finance which takes forever to pay service providers. That results in some service providers resorting to influencing their connections in government to speed up their payments, at the expense of others who are still owed for services rendered as far back as 2014, 2015, 2016, until their businesses collapse. So we know where the problems are, and as ABC under the new leadership we have a way in which we are planning to go around that problem because the only way for Lesotho to succeed is to empower our business people. Not to rely to foreigners alone.
What about crime, we have seen unprecedented rise in murder statistics. Does the ABC have a solution to the rampant crime in Lesotho?
As the new ABC leadership we have a dream for this country. We have changed (government) leadership about two times within this term. Each leadership has their own approach. I have mine too. I have identified several crime hotspots, such as the crowded bus ranks where people get mugged day in day out and are never arrested. People are killed every day but there is no justice. Our development partners are concerned about the level of crime, for instance, human trafficking. We were assisted by the Americans whose investigations revealed that powerful politicians were involved. I think that is why we don’t see much being done in terms of acting on perpetrators.
There is this general believe that Lesotho’s education system has become irrelevant and out of touch with modern day needs and challenges. What is your party’s position on this?
I think that is very true and, after the September elections when we are back in government, we are going to prioritise education. I think the main reason for our stagnant and non-progressive education system is that the ABC has never really been in charge of the education ministry since the first coalition of 2012. The sector was managed in line with the vision of the other parties. There are real challenges there, for example the working conditions of teachers that leave them frustrated and disgruntled. Some teacher go for months, or even years, without being paid after employment. There is also the challenge of lack of textbooks and teaching aids in schools. These are some of the challenges we plan to root out.
There is growing discomfort – accompanied by mistrust – at the growing influence of the Chinese in Lesotho. We are talking about public affairs, public procurement and business. Do you share this sentiments?
To a certain extent I will say yes, and that is promoted by same fact I have mentioned earlier that as a country we don’t have that eye of promoting our locals. We believe something is good when it is done by a foreigner. That is why we fail to pay local service providers on time. Tis erodes their confidence in the system. To be honest we also have Basotho service providers who get paid despite shoddy workmanship. It all boils town to culture and discipline. If you go to a Chinese shop for example, the service is fast. But if you go to a Mosotho-owned shop, you find the shop keeper busy chatting on the phone without a bit of care for service seekers. It is such Basotho who prompt us to resort to foreigners for services.
The thorny and polarising issue of amnesty for perpetrators of politically motivated offences. How will the ABC tackle it?
The ABC’s position has been clear, and it’s still clear that justice must be served. In our culture, we feel amnesty is more lenient and doesn’t serve the real purpose. Even if some people think it’s more like we feel like revenging, for us the only way to revenge, if I can put it like that, is with people having their day in court and serving their sentences. There could be alternatives, like redress or compensation for victims of political crimes.
