By ‘Majirata Latela
Observers predict that the new government which will be formed after the coming national assembly elections has a huge responsibility of ensuring that the national reforms serve the purpose they were meant for.
Political analyst Professor Motlamelle Kapa this week said looking at the clauses) that have been expunged from the 11th Amendment to the Constitution Bill (Omnibus Bill) is disheartening and that the Lower House failed to recognise an immense need to reform Lesotho. He said due to such a decline to clearly legislate reforms, the country was far from removal from the Southern African Development Community (SADC)P, top agenda.
“This brings a question about the whole idea of talking about the national reforms. It seems as if the reforms were an idea that came from the Senate that the National Assembly does not know anything about. But the truth remains that Senate tried to make sure that the Bill remains the way it was when it came from the National Reforms Authority (NRA).
“NRA is a product of all leaderships in this country and it was inclusive of all sectors from the society; business people, political parties and the likes for the sole purpose of making sure that the reforms are inclusive and have national ownership.
“Parties which were represented in the NRA were represented by the members of the executive committee, not leaving behind parties that are forming the government. One could have expected that those members would be reporting periodically what was happening in the NRA,” he said disappointedly.
He was mindful that during the two plenary sessions that were held the two houses seemed to be fine with amendments that were debated and passed by the National Assembly members.
He added that at the national leader’s forum which was held just a month ago, the House of Representatives agreed to pass the Omnibus Bill and recalled the sitting of the Lower House.
He further showed that currently, none of the National Assembly members wanted to remember where Lesotho comes from with reforms, saying the legislators sought to maintain the status quo on the duties of the incumbent prime minister.
“What the National Assembly has done was to expunge all the recommendations from the public that the prime minister ‘s powers to appoint heads of the security sectors and the judiciary. I then foresee Lesotho going back to square one in no time,” Kapa said.
He said it was now up to the next parliament to deal with the reforms that were debated by the NRA as legislators have reneged from their commitments to enact them into laws.
On the one hand, the minister of justice, law and constitutional affairs, Lekhetho Rakuoane said during a press briefing which was held in Maseru on Monday that it was not possible for the Omnibus Bill to be passed as it was. He said the parliament has been given the powers to make laws and “it is very clear that parliament had to do its job the way it sees fit.”
Rakuoane suggested: “One of the biggest challenges that we should be looking at if we are saying parliament should have passed the Omnibus Bill is that, enactment into law of those the Bills is still going to be difficult.
“That exercise is very costly and I do not think NRA could want to put more weight on the public funds for enacting all the Bills into law at a time. Parliament cannot be in a position to pass a Bill which is going to be very expensive for implementation without consulting the executive which is the government.
“The Constitution, provides for the government to oversee usage of public funds and even if the Bills are good, they will have to see if it is financially possible to pass into law all the Bills at the same time. Who is responsible to oversee that the nation does not carry the weight just in the name of reforms?” Rakuoane asked rhetorically.
The chairman of the College of Chiefs and the principal chief of Thaba-Bosiu Khoabane Theko has this week showed that he is aware that the King has not yet given a royal ascend to the Omnibus Bill. He wished the monarchy should not give ascend to the Bill.
On Friday last week the College of Chiefs and some members of Senate showed disappointment over the way the National Assembly betrayed them on failure to fully pass the Bill on suggested national reforms. The principal chiefs argued that the Bill was not adopted as passed by the NRA claiming that the reforms have therefore faltered.
Theko said most of the amendments which included the King being the commander-in-chief of the Lesotho Defence Force, joint sitting of parliament, impeachment of the Prime Minister, ministers of local government of Lesotho, formation of coalition of government, foreign services and local authorities have been rejected by the Lower House.
“On Thursday the 4th August 2022, at a workshop organised by the Lesotho Council of Non- Governmental Organisations, member of the Senate and leaders of political parties in parliament found a common ground on clauses of the Omnibus Bill as there was no consensus between the Senate and the National Assembly. Apart from that it was agreed that the two Houses sign a pledge to conclude outstanding work on the Omnibus Bill which had lapsed with the dissolution of parliament for the sake of peace, stability and reconciliation.
“The Omnibus Bill has been built with the nations’ opinions. The nation has showed the Lesotho that they want and now the National Assembly just decided to put aside the opinions of the nation. And Senate as the overseer of the nation when the Bill came into the House, we then decided to put back those Bills that the National Assembly expunged,” Theko said.
