Constituencies snub RFP leadership

MASERU – THREE Revolution for Prosperity (RFP) constituencies demanding an elective conference this week snubbed a meeting called by the leadership to discuss their grievances.

The leadership had proposed to meet representatives of the Abia, Thaba-Phechela, and Makhaleng constituencies at the party’s offices on Tuesday.

The Abia constituency chairman, Cowboy Sethathi, told thepost that they did not attend the meeting because the party has been pleading with the leadership to hold a conference since January.

“The current committee does not have the legal powers to call us because its time lapsed a long time ago,” Sethathi said.

“Our lawyer advised us not to attend that meeting, they do not have powers anymore.”

“Now we were expecting them to give us the NEC election date, not to call us to a meeting,” Sethathi said.

He scoffed at the invitation letter’s insistence that the constituencies had not exhausted internal remedies before instructing their lawyers threatening to sue the party.

“We have been writing to them and they always ignored us,” Sethathi said.

The Makhaleng constituency chairman, Moloi Ralentsoe, said he did not attend the meeting because all they want is a conference to elect a new committee.

“The letter does not answer any of our grievances, they just invite us to the meeting,” Ralentsoe said.

“All we want is to go and elect our lawful committee through a secret ballot as the constitution stipulates.”

“The current committee does not have any powers to facilitate any meeting because its time in office has already lapsed.”

The Thaba-Phechela constituency also wrote to the party on Monday demanding the elective conference and was also invited to the meeting.

“We advise the NEC to abide by the constitution by calling the conference to avoid being taken to the courts of law,” the constituency committee said in the letter.

“We expect the party to be run by democracy and the rule of law.”

It appears the three constituencies are now taking their fight for the elective conference to the High Court.

The party is however refusing to budge, insisting that it would not hold an elective conference.

Party leader and Prime Minister Sam Matekane told a rally in Qeme last week Sunday that the constituencies “should forget about an elective conference until five years have passed”.

Matekane said the five-year period given to them by the RFP members is for delivering services and not fighting for committee positions.

“We promised to work and rescue this country, let us work for these five years,” Matekane said.

He urged the party members not to allow people to tell them lies because they will not elect the committee.

The RFP Secretary General, Communications Minister Nthati Moorosi, said they are not afraid of being voted out of power as the current committee.

But they are afraid of destructive divisions that will result from the election.

“We are desperate to deliver on the promises we made to Basotho,” Moorosi said.

What we are determined to do as the party is to change Basotho’s lives and turn this country into the “Lesotho we want”, she said.

Moorosi said they are pushing for the revolution they have promised Basotho and not necessarily being in the committee.

“It’s about being part of the revolution,” she said.

She argued that they are passionate about bringing effective and positive changes to the lives of the people.

She said it is not about them and their popularity in the party.

Now what matters is that people should understand what the RFP was established for.

Moorosi said among other critical issues behind the formation of the RFP is to rescue this country and change it into a country that “makes all of us proud”.

She said nothing will be allowed to interfere with that process, “especially the NEC elections that are notoriously divisive”.

Moorosi said the time for elections will come.

“It’s all about priorities,” she said.

Asked if the people who are demanding the elective conference are not supported by the party’s constitution, Moorosi said the RFP’s constitution “has many interpretations”.

She said the party still needs to hold a policy conference to find alignment on the interpretation of the constitution.

Regarding the party’s constitutional provisions on the elective conference, she said “the elective conference is held every five years”.

Moorosi said in politics they continuously negotiate positions and they will continue to engage with all stakeholders to find an alignment.

She said one thing she knows for sure is that they have a common goal of transforming Lesotho into a better state for all citizens.

With that in mind, they “should not allow things that will distract us from achieving that goal”.

Moorosi said their leader Matekane has given his statement that they will not be holding elections.

She said members should continue to rally behind the leader and support his vision.

Nkheli Liphoto & Majara Molupe