ABC stalwart defects to BAP

MASERU – HALEBONOE Setšabi, the former Defence Minister and staunch All Basotho Convention (ABC) member, defected to the Basotho Action Party (BAP) last Friday.

Setšabi told BAP supporters at the party’s offices that he was fed up with the infighting in the ABC.

He said his decision to defect was not easy because he has been with the ABC since it was launched by former prime minister Thomas Thabane in 2006.

“My decision to defect did not come easy as I have always been part of one party since its establishment,” Setšabi said.

“I joined Lesotho politics in 2006 and I’ve never changed my party until the day I decided to join the Basotho Action Party.”

Setšabi said he never thought of leaving the party until recently when he became weary of its incessant internal squabbles.

He said he was not one of those people who remain loyal to a political party even when it lost direction and stopped helping them.

“Only an idiot does not accept change,” he said, adding that he hopes the BAP will not fall victim to the internal squabbles that have pushed him to leave the ABC.

“Big parties like the BAP are always split by unnecessary power struggles. We should never allow the infightings to divide us.”

Setšabi defected to the BAP on the same day as the deputy Alliance for Free Movement (AFM)’s Hlonepho Ntšekhe.

Ntšekhe, who was the deputy leader of the AFM and was once the Deputy Minister of Sports, said he could have been one of the BAP founders because he had several meetings with leader Professor Nqosa Mahao before he formed the party.

“No other leadership can rescue Lesotho except the BAP leader Nqosa Mahao,” Ntšekhe said, claiming that he is one of the people that persuaded Professor Mahao to form a party when he was being hounded out of the ABC.

He pleaded with his supporters in the AFM to follow him to the BAP.

“I never got a chance to talk to my supporters while with the AFM due to the infightings, now I am asking all of you to come with me to the BAP.”

Professor Mahao welcomed Setšabi and Ntšekhe at the party’s offices last Friday.

He said he called Setšabi before the last election to encourage him to vote for the BAP. Professor Mahao said the defection of Setsabi and Ntšekhe was a big coup because they are “big fish”.

Nkheli Liphoto