BNP wants MPs ousted from Parliament

Staff Reporter

MASERU

THE Basotho National Party (BNP) wants two of its proportional representation MPs booted from parliament.

The BNP has asked Speaker of Parliament Ntlhoi Motsamai to release former Secretary General, Lesojane Leuta, and ’Makhotso Matsumunyane from parliament following their dismissal from the party.

In a letter submitted to Motsamai last Thursday the BNP said Leuta and Matsumunyane no longer qualify to represent the party because they have been expelled.

Leuta and Matsumunyane are in parliament on a BNP ticket after they were selected as part of its four proportional representation MPs in last year February’s general election.

The party leader, Thesele ’Maseribane, is the only one who won his Mount Moorosi constituency.

The party spokesperson, Machesetsa Mofomobe, said the BNP decided to recall the two because “they no longer represent the party’s interests in parliament”.

“You cannot say a PR MP is representing a party when he or she does not follow the directives of the party,” Mofomobe said.

“It is known that those who went to parliament because they won in their constituencies are carrying the mandate of the people of their constituencies and it is the people in their constituencies who have powers to give them directions.”

“In like manner, those who went to parliament because they were sent by their parties after they were nominated by the parties are answerable to those parties and they should therefore follow the directives of the parties,” he said.

Mofomobe accused Leuta and Matsumunyane of failing to follow party orders.

“There are many things that showed that they were no longer part of the team that the BNP sent to parliament,” he said.

Matsumunyane defied the party’s order not to attend parliament until the government pledged the safe return of the exiled BNP leader, Thesele ’Maseribane, All Basotho Convention leader Thomas Thabane and the Reformed Congress of Lesotho leader Keketso Rantšo.

MPs of the three opposition parties boycotted parliament for over four months.

The BNP’s deputy leader then said Matsumunyane had approached the party saying she wanted to attend but her request was flatly denied.

However, Matsumunyane’s response in the media was that she was surprised that she was being accused of defiance but when other BNP MPs went to parliament to ask questions during the proceedings nobody questioned them.

Matsumunyane said she had an urgent question to ask in parliament about graves that had been damaged by heavy rains in Senqu.

Her concern was that that could pose health risks to the people and she needed the matter to be attended urgently by the government’s experts.

She said the people in her rural area in Senqu constituency did not know about the boycott because of limited access to news.

Leuta has been accused of bringing the party into disrepute and defying orders from the leadership.

Last year he was accused of sneaking his name on to a PR list the party submitted to the Independent Electoral Commission for the election.

The party sued seeking the reversal of Leuta’s decision but failed.

Leuta has always maintained that he is being punished for questioning how the party’s finances are being managed.

He has disputed the leadership’s claims that the party is broke. His argument has been that the company could not have run out of money because it has several buildings that it is renting out.