Never forget where we come from!

My pastor, Brian Pinches, once told us a story of the spider. Do you like spiders?
A lot of people are afraid of them. Spiders are very useful. They get rid of flies and we know that flies can do a lot of harm.

I want to tell you the same, old, Danish story about a spider in this article.
Once upon a time, goes the story, in an old barn, high in the roof, a spider was born.

He began to try to walk, and, as he walked about he found that he could spin fine strands of web.
He amused himself playing with these web strands until one day he thought he would go exploring, so he fastened one end of a strand of web on the beam at the top of the roof and let himself down, down, down, down, down, until he hit something.

He looked around himself and found that it was the top of the open door of the barn. Then he began to build a web.
If you look at spiders and spiders’ webs you will know how clever spiders are. Spiders are skilled engineers, they are born mathematicians.

They make wonderful webs. So he experimented, making different webs, some bigger than others.
Slowly the webs took shape, and then, when he had finished making his best web he took a line like a wire to a corner where he decided he would live.

That would be his home. The idea was that when a visitor came into his web, and the web shook, this line would act like a telephone line and would tell him that he had a visitor for lunch.
This happened time and again and he had many dinners of lovely fat flies. Instead of being a little, small, thin spider, he grew into a big fat satisfied spider.

He enjoyed life, because life there on the top of the open barn door was a life full of sunshine and flies.
What could be better?

When flies came into his web they would sometimes break it and he would have to go around it and repair it.
One day, as he was working around his biggest and best web he came to the top and saw a line that didn’t seem to be catching any flies.

So, he thought, ‘What use is that?’ With one sharp nip he cut it. Do you know what happened next?
The whole web crumbled right down because the line he had cut was the line he had originally come down from the roof, and it was holding the whole web up!

So he cut himself off, he had forgotten where he had come from.
It appears that we have forgotten the importance of the thread down which we have come. It is important to revisit why we hated Liabiloe ‘Maesaiah Thabane’s undue influence in the government.

I wish to remind Basotho because I have noticed that there are some political parties that might want to repeat Liabiloe’s mistakes.
Liabiloe was both loved and hated by the All Basotho Convention (ABC) supporters and most Basotho.

Those who hated her with a passion included close relatives to her husband, the then Prime Minister Motsoahae Thabane.
They hated what she had done to their father. They no longer had control over him.

Liabiloe was suspected of murdering Lipolelo Thabane (Thabane’s enstranged wife), her motives were clear — to become the First Lady.
We are told by Thabane’s daughter that Liabiloe is a strong believer in witchcraft. Liabiloe was despised for meddling in political affairs in a nation of strong patriarchs.

She forced Thabane to abscond in his duties of leading the government of Lesotho. She used to visit several government offices to demand better service from civil servants in the presence of Thabane.

Many people including myself believed that Liabiloe possessed the spirit of Jezebel. She was not in any position of influence in government or the ABC but she deployed and controlled government ministers and Principal Secretaries.

When given a free rein, Liabiloe exercised undue influence in government issues and she often took centre stage where she was not supposed to.
Liabiloe embodied everything that was supposed to be eliminated from Thabane’s government.

What spurred Liabiloe to action is unknown and unknowable, but the motives of Thabane’s daughter, Nkoea, came through plainly in the audio clip where she was speaking to Selimo Thabane.
Liabiloe was a bold and impious interloper who had to be stopped.

Thabane was later ousted. He could only blame himself for his ouster as he allowed his wife a free hand to meddle in government and party affairs.
In my opinion Thabane’s short reign probably marks the worst period of misrule Lesotho has ever experienced since independence in 1966.

Indeed the impious interloper had to be stopped.
I hope and pray that all political parties will not fail to learn from Liabiloe’s example. My fear is that if some other political parties win elections and form government, history might repeat itself.

It is possible that there will be impious interlopers, who will exercise undue influence in government affairs.
In my opinion it will be worse this time around because the Jezebel spirit has been institutionalised in these political parties.

The new Liabiloes have constitutional powers in these political parties.
There are a lot of people like that spider. They forget where they have come from.

They become self-confident and have forgotten the importance of the thread down which they have come.
They have forgotten how important it is to keep in touch with the masses of our people, who made them, and gave them an opportunity to serve.

At first, they come to Parliament or government to serve the people, but as time goes by they forget all about these important things and they cut themselves off, just like that spider.
There comes a day when they find what a terrible mistake they have made as everything crumbles down around them.

Everything crumbled for Liabiloe ‘Maesaiah Thabane. I hope political parties which shall govern this country in the future will not be like that.
The line the spider broke was the strength of his web.

Ramahooana Matlosa