Basotho Action Party (BAP) leader Professor Nqosa Mahao does not believe in those colourful manifestos which he says promise much but offer very little in terms of implementation. In this interview with theReporter, he outlines his party’s well thought out and workable programme of action to set the country on a path to an inclusive economy anchored on all round clean and accountable governance.
Please outline the BAP’s vision for Lesotho, and why it deserves to be given the mandate to govern Lesotho?
I can’t imagine that there is any party that deserves the support of the nation, given the crisis of our political system and political parties that are participating in the system. BAP is a transformational political outfit. It’s a key vision, it’s based on three pillars: 1. we believe in a clean government, this country is economically, administratively and politically crippled by corruption and theft. The second aspect of our vision is the rule of law; again everybody can see that Lesotho is a teetering on the brink of anarchy, there is no order whether it is in planning in our social affairs in terms of control over incidence of crime. Remember that, Lesotho actually ranks number 6 in the world in terms of homicides and number 1 on African continent in that space and the simple reason is that that our law and order infrastructure has collapsed. The third aspect of our beliefs is that our economy has to grow in an inclusive manner.
Again remember that, almost 60 percent of our people live below the poverty line. Lesotho ranks number 8 in the world in terms of the disparity between the haves and the have-nots. And so in terms of how we have developed, in our programme of action we deal with how we are going to grow the economy outside the state sector so that everybody has access to a decent means of living, which up to now have evaded this country. So all of these are in our programme of action. No other party in this country does have a programme of action. Normally, what you will see as the elections approach, parties are going to begin to unveil what are called manifestos which are just wish lists, which have no direct impact on the fundamental structure problems of the country. But the BAP has developed the programme of action that goes to the heart of the program.
One issue that has caused a very visible divergence of views among political parties is the demarcation of constituencies. What is the BAP’s position on this matter and what are your reasons?
Well, we pronounce ourselves very clearly on that. First of all, look as a party that believes in the rules of law, it is the constitution of this country that enjoins hat every 10 years the constituency boundaries, must be reviewed to take in to account the development movement of the population in the country so that every constituency is relatively equitable to another constituency. BAP is firmly supportive of the demarcation of the constituencies. We think it is the right thing to do and you may be aware that one party, the DC, filed the court case where it was trying to stop the demarcation. The BAP responded by actually filing an opposition to that case.
Taking us back to the issue of corruption that you have raised. Of course we have seen an escalation of corruption in recent years. The has led to people losing confidence, thrust and interest in both politics and politicians. How does the BAP plan to revive the people’s interest in national affairs?
The nation has been losing faith in politics in general and in party political activity because political parties have not been convincing in terms of tackling grave social ills. Corruption is one such. You recall that when I was a minister of law and justice I caused the suspension of the director-general of the anti-corruption body for the simple reason that the institution was not combatting corruption. Instead, we found ample evidence that they were involved in actually abetting corruption themselves. In fact, the director general amongst other things was suspended for having actually defrauded moneys that were kept in custody as evidence within the DCEO. Now, our policy is, strengthen the political independence of DCEO. Appoint the people that are competent, people that are committed to fighting corruption; clean the police service of political involvement and of elements that have a tinge of criminal activities themselves and ensure that the courts of law also are equipped with magistrates and judges that are clean, competent and professional. Remember, it was during my tenure as the minister of justice that I introduced the currently unfolding dispensation where judicial positions are advertised and people are interviewed in the public and the best of them get appointed as judicial officers. It is part of the whole landscape of reforms that we believe we will be able to deal vigorously with corruption, with crime in general and foster a society based on law and order.
There is this issue that has always topped the agenda in Lesotho, namely poverty and unemployment particularly youth unemployment. How does the BAP plan to address it?
That incident is very serious, in the society. You would be aware that many of our young people are actually leave the country and go and work in very dangerous situations, particularly in disused mines in South Africa where they live underground for months on end without seeing daylight and many of them are actually die in the course. Now BAP believes that you have to restructure the economy by ensuring that you create job opportunities outside the state, by encouraging the development of the private sector. The way we are going to go about it is to first of all establish a development bank, the purpose of which is going to be to provide funding for young people who would be trained in artisan and technical skills so that they would be able to access money to establish their own businesses and drive the economy.
Another element is to also enable the development bank to support the business sector so that it would be able to employ more people> We have said in several of the pronouncements we have made in the public space that, if a business man employs young people for a period of six months those young people would not be paid by the industry concerned will be paid by the government as apprentices so that after the six months, then they will either have experience and remain with the particular industry. From there on of course the industry will take over the payment of their wages or they will have the experience to go and establish on their own. So these are some of the ways in which we are addressing that issue of grave unemployment that is ravaging the country.
You also mentioned crime. It is a fact that we have witnessed unprecedented rise in murder statistics. Does the BAP have a solution to the rampant crime seen in Lesotho?
Most definitely. First of all, the institutions that have to combat crime have to be strengthened and empowered professionally, starting with the police. Our police service does not have enough equipment. For example, they don’t have vehicles, even horses, to be able to respond quickly to calls where crimes are being committed. We also suspect that their numbers are not enough to deal with the scale of crime ravaging the country. For example, take a town like Mokhotlong or Thaba Tseka. Between them, you are talking about three to four hours’ travel. But there is not a single police station in between, notwithstanding the fact that livestock theft is very serious in those areas. This means you need to have more hands of deck in terms of police personnel and police stations. You also need to have more bette- trained investigators.
Another element, is to capacitate the judiciary all the way from the primary courts right up to the high court. Presently there are more than 4000 cases that constitute a backlog in the high court alone. This shows that our judiciary is completely overwhelmed by the incidence of crime. All of this is a result of poor investment on the part of successive governments in ensuring a criminal justice value chain that is on top on the phenomenon of crime ion the country.
You also mentioned the issue of education. There is a belief that our education system has become irrelevant and out of touch with the needs and challenges of today. What is your party’s position on this?
That is correct. Our education system needs a total overhaul. As the BAP we say, at the middle level you need to establish vocational and technical schools in every district of the country. Because artisans and technical people are the people who drive the economy of the country. Without them the economy cannot work. And you need to create as many of them as possible. Also because these are the people who would be able to employ themselves and employ others.
At tertiary level, we have said with a 10-year period we will have transformed the landscape such that 60 percent of enrolments in tertiary will come from disciplines such as agriculture, science, technology, engineering and mathematics, health and commerce. That way you will be generating a crop of citizens who are relevant in terms of the direction of the global economic growth and relevance to the needs of our society. At the moment, over-emphasis on the arts, humanities and some of the social sciences is the direct consequence of why we have so many graduates walking the streets without job opportunities.
There is growing discomfort and mistrust at the growing influence of the Chinese in Lesotho’s public affairs and economy. Do you share this sentiment?
Who wouldn’t be concerned? You know that a recent past Prime Minister engaged a Chinese man as his so-called economic advisor. What did we see out of that arrangement? This man was just looting the economy of this country. Almost all of the major tenders were offered to him and we haven’t seen any investment coming into the country. Let me talk about the Chinese capturing the economy of this country. If you look at the wholesale industry, hardware and retail business including right in the heartland. Everything has been taken over by the Chinese. The explanation is, there are laws that govern who goes into which business but they are not enforced. Now imagine someone leaving China to come and sell fat cakes in Maseru. Corruption and poor management of the economy are to blame for the takeover of our economy by the people of Asiatic origin.
Finally, the thorny issue of amnesty of perpetrators of politically motivated offences. What is the BAP’s stance on this one?
If you already have the dubious distinction of being the hub of crime on the continent and then you come up with a bizarre dispensation where the political class are offered amnesty for the crime they have committed, what message are you sending to the nation out there? That committing crime pays because you won’t be call to account? BAP says all of us must be subject to the law, in particular the political class that make the laws in parliament. They must submit themselves to the laws that they make. So this whole amnesty thing is totally unjustified. On the contrary it encourages the commission of crime.
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