Mokhothu promises big

MASERU – Democratic Congress (DC) leader Mathibeli Mokhothu has promised his party will build three new stadiums if he is voted as prime minister in October’s general elections.
Mokhothu was speaking at a DC rally in Ha-Thetsane on Sunday and, amongst his other promises, told his supporters he would make them all rich, pensionable, and end school fees in high schools.

Mokhothu spoke roughly for one hour, but his talk about sports only lasted for a minute and he could not wait to move onto another topic.
Lesotho politicians hate sports and it is difficult for them to even pretend they know what they are talking about except the basics.

Building three new stadiums and improving community football grounds when the government cannot even maintain the only facility it owns in Setsoto Stadium, is a pipe dream.
It is the usual garbage that politicians spout when begging for votes, only for them to do something totally different when they are in power.

“We are going to improve sports in their different communities, (when it comes to) the community grounds it is best that we protect them and grow grass, but we should at least build three new big stadiums in Lesotho,” Mokhothu said.

“(We will) renovate Setsoto Stadium, build a stadium in Leribe, another in Mohale’s Hoek, the big one which will be an international stadium (and) it will have indoor games. We want to see athletics and football at the professional level,” he added.

Mokhothu made several bold claims and promises, from job creation to building highways.

Mokhothu is currently Lesotho’s deputy Prime Minister. It has been two years now since Setsoto was banned by CAF and the government still has not batted an eyelid. Instead, they have completely ignored the ground forcing the national team Likuena to take their games to South Africa. The same government Mokhothu is part of has just killed the Lepereng sporting project.

The Ministry of Sport is led by Likeleli Tampane, who is a DC member. She once threatened to cut financial help for the national team if players from her constituencies were not selected.

Her speech caused uproar at the time and she defended herself saying that was political talk, but has since made good on her words as Lesotho Football Association (LEFA) has failed to enroll the team for the African Championships due to lack of funds.

This is not all, it is just the tip of the iceberg of how the government has neglected and incompetently ignored the sports fraternity, but uses it to campaign for votes.

Tlalane Phahla