Lesotho - Moleleki under fire

(MENAFN- The Post)

MASERU – A U-TURN by Monyane Moleleki not to retire from active Politics but instead stand in this year's parliamentary elections has caused ructions within his Alliance of Democrats (AD) party.
Moleleki, 73, told his party in 2017 that he would not seek re-election in his Machache constituency after the end of his current term but would instead groom a successor.

The AD leader was held up as a poster-boy of Lesotho politics in setting a new trend in passing on the baton to younger leaders.
But nine months after that announcement, that has now unraveled with Moleleki making a stunning summersault. He now says he will in fact be the AD's candidate for Machache, a constituency he has represented in Parliament since 1994.
That decision has now enraged the party's faithful who were also eyeing the constituency.

The irate constituency members called Moleleki to a meeting this past weekend to discuss the matter. The meeting, which was said to have been a stormy one, did not end well.
Several party members were expelled after they disagreed with the party's leader.
A contestant who is seeking to replace Moleleki as MP, Phatoana Matlali, told thepost that they do not agree with their leader's decision to contest for elections again.

“What if he stands and loses, what will we do?” Matlali said, adding that it would be an embarrassment to both the leader and the party.
He said their Sunday meeting did not go well as some of the members including the youth league chairman were expelled.
He also said the majority of the party's members in the constituency were eager to see changes before the elections.
“We have 15 branches here and 13 of them want our leader to retire as he said while the other two support him,” he said.

He added that they do not think Moleleki will go for primary elections to seek endorsement from party members adding that“the branches are the ones with the authority to decide who will represent them”.
He accused the national executive committee of seeking to impose Moleleki on the people despite his repeated statements that he wanted to retire.
“Now who should we listen to, the people or the committee?”
One of the members who asked to remain anonymous said they asked Moleleki to clarify his intentions to the constituency.

“He stated that he did not have any intentions to stand, but because he is governed by the party's NEC, he will abide by its decisions that he should stand in the constituency,” the member said.
He said after Moleleki said this, all hell broke loose with many party officials disagreeing with his stance which they saw as political doublespeak. They were however expelled from the meeting for dissension.
“He said only the chairmen of the branches, secretaries of the branches and the treasurers should remain,” he said.

He said the meeting was called by the constituency and was not for those who hold positions in the party.
“But he expelled all who did not have any positions.”
He said many of those who left the meeting vowed not to vote for Moleleki since he had expressly told them that he was retiring from politics.
Another member, Mantsoe Mantsoe, said he was one of the people who were expelled.

He added that Moleleki was not happy when he entered the meeting.
“He was not happy, I have never seen him like that before,” Mantsoe said.
Efforts to contact Moleleki were unsuccessful.
However, the party's secretary general, Dr Mahali Phamotse, said although Moleleki had said he was retiring“a circular to that effect was never issued”.
“He just said that he is retiring but our NEC does not even know that,” she said.

She said Matlali should not assume that people were on his side.
“A circular has not yet been released, he should not speak like he was officially appointed,” Dr Phamotse said.
Phamotse added that campaigning for the constituency does not mean one will be a representative, referring to Matlali who is leading the campaign in the constituency.

Phamotse said the executive committee“was not part of the Sunday meeting as the constituency wanted their MP and not their committee”.
“They should stop saying the NEC is the one imposing, we are not involved, they were to talk to their Member of Parliament and not the NEC,” she said.
When Moleleki announced that he was retiring back in 2017, he was praised as a beacon of democracy.
He said he was retiring to give others a chance adding that leaders should learn to hand over the baton and not cling to positions for life.
Now those words have come back to haunt him.

Nkheli Liphoto

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