The UFC has won my heart

I may just consider voting in the up-coming 2022 general election following an interview I heard on Harvest FM of ’Malichaba Lekhoaba from the United for Change (UFC). I had also considered voting for Socialist Revolutionaries (SR) until its leader said Ma-Swallows ke litsotsi in a recent interview on Harvest FM. I guess he was trying to take a sarcastic jab at Nkaku Kabi by insinuating that my team, Swallows FC, is a club of crooks. My answer to him is very simple, Swallows ke team e kholo e hlomphehang. Feela ha e selehe, ea cha! However, here is an interesting point you may find surprising. I am really impressed by Katiso Phasumane from the Empowerment what-what party (I don’t quite remember its name but its colours resemble those of WASCO). I’m impressed. Phasumane speaks a lot of sense and seems to understand the mechanics of a modern economy – tax revenue. If Lekhoaba fails to convince me by answering my questions, Carter (Phasumane) has my vote, unequivocally. But before we start, I would like to pose a question to my good friend, Ramahooana Matlosa. The question is on the nickname, ‘Smart Man’. So, what does the ‘smart’ in Smart Man really mean? Is it smart as in looks (dress-code)? “This guy looks smart.” Or is it smart as in acumen/intellect? “Hmmm, that guy sounds very smart?” Which is which? Kea leboha. Ke tla mamela Radiong. Since we are now in the so called silly season (2022 election campaign), I have gone into a habit of listening to Harvest FM online and I must say some of the shows are quite interesting. And the funniest of them all are the Wednesday morning shows with Moruti Moleko. I tell you, that man will make you laugh, even if you try to suppress the laughter. But what I found quite intriguing is the Monday morning politics show that has consistently featured Lekhoaba. What do you call that? Some may call it preferential treatment whilst others may see it as bias. In any case, we could say it is a paid feature on Harvest FM by the United for Change political party popularly known as the UFC. Whichever way you chose to see it, Lekhoaba has won my heart for now even though she has literally said nothing on how she will grow the economy and create jobs. The question is on the how? Yes, there is a lot of clutter on the radio and almost all the political parties are making silly claims about this and that. There is also one party named Hope. All that I could say after listening to them is: Dear Lord Jesus, please save us! Anyway the real question we ask as voters is HOW? How do you plan to create jobs? How do you plan to improve the education sector? How do you plan to improve the health sector? How are you going to increase the tax revenue collection? How do you plan to reduce crime and scourge of killings? Give us the how part. We are not interested in potholes and broken robots/traffic lights. Those are symptoms of an ailing economy. Lekhoaba talked eloquently, highlighting a string of social ills that our country has. But those are symptoms as I have indicated. Go to a doctor and tell the doctor that you have started coughing. If you see the doctor writing and scribbling notes before you even start talking, just know that you are in trouble. You are in S H Eye Tea, to put it mildly. The doctor will have to examine the symptoms first and ask you: “How are you feeling? What are the symptoms? Are you coughing? Have you lost weight? Blah, blah, blah!” The Doctor will then prescribe a ‘remedy’ to solve the problem going forward. Maybe, wear a mask when walking on Kingsway Road to avoid inhalation of dirty air. But to solve that in the short-term, here is some medicine X,Y,Z to solve the illness. You see, this is the problem with our politicians. They go onto the radio and talk a big Blah, blah, blah about the symptoms. We all know them and that is why we are sick and tired of the ABC and DC. That’s why some of us are sick and tired of Lesotho in general. Tell us something new.

  But what I found quite intriguing is the Monday morning politics show that has consistently featured Lekhoaba. What do you call that? Some may call it preferential treatment whilst others may see it as bias. In any case, we could say it is a paid feature on Harvest FM by the United for Change political party also popularly known as the UFC. Whichever way you chose to see it, Lekhoaba has won my heart for now even though she has literally said nothing on how she will grow the economy and create jobs

It is time to give solutions to the crisis and tell us how to solve it. Now, what I was really expecting Lekhoaba to do is expand on the policies of her political party. Well, maybe policies are a big ask for our political parties and I don’t know why. Here are some of the questions I would like to pose to Lekhoaba:

1. Macro-Economic Policy/Strategy: What is your macro-economic policy or strategy as the UFC? It is a fact that Lesotho cannot solve most of its challenges due to lack of funds to finance the budget allocations. Tax revenue collection is by far the biggest challenge that Lesotho has in order to fulfil its mandate to render services. My questions are as follows: a. How do you plan to increase the tax revenue collection to the Lesotho Revenue Authority? (Fiscal Policy) b. How do you plan to generate jobs? With which industries? c. How do you plan on stabilising inflation, the rising cost of food? (Monetary policy) d. How do you plan to attract more investment (FDI) in order to generate jobs and boost the economy?
2. Micro-economic policy/strategy: What is the microeconomic policy or strategy of the UFC? It is a well-known fact that small and medium enterprises are a backbone of any growing economy. They also generate the highest number of jobs in any economy. However, the opposite has happened in Lesotho. SMEs are neglected and have been left to become an informal sector that is generally unregulated and unlegislated. How will the UFC counter the neglect from national government and empower this needed sector? a. How do you plan to support medium and micro enterprises in order to stimulate new jobs and sustain existing jobs? b. How will you engage the banking and micro-lending sector to offer micro-lending facilities for medium and micro enterprises? c. How will the UFC empower and up-skill micro-enterprises such as ‘Baitšokoli’ in order to graduate to legally registered micro enterprises. d. How will the UFC open up trade concessions for micro-enterprises to start exporting? Possibly to China. e. How will the UFC sort-out the outstanding payments worth over M1 billion to the private sector? How will you finance the payments? Source of funds? f. How do you plan to curb the loss of jobs more especially in the textile industry?
3. Education and Training Policy: What is the education policy and training policy or strategy of the UFC? It is a well-known fact that our education sector produces half-baked products due to lack of funding from the national budget, inadequate training of teachers, a national teacher training college that is in deep crisis and a high drop-out of students following the Covid-19 pandemic. Here are some questions for you: a. How do you plan to fund or increase subvention (budget support) to the National University of Lesotho (NUL)? How are you going to finance it? b. How do you plan to solve the problems of poorly trained teachers? Up-skill existing teachers? c. How do you plan to curb the high dropout rate? d. How do you plan to diversify the education offerings and programmes to learners? e. Will teachers ever receive incentives such as medical aid, housing allowances and car allowances? If yes, how will you finance them?
4. Agriculture and food security policy/strategy: What is the agriculture and food security policy of the UFC? It is a well-known fact that the agriculture sector is top generator of un-skilled and semi-skilled jobs in any economy. How will the UFC manage to improve the sector and guarantee food security? How will the UFC deal with the following threats to the agriculture sector? a. How will the UFC deal will a low-yield / output of crops in the urban and rural communities? b. How will the UFC restore confidence, stabilise and redress the damage made to the wool and mohair sector? c. How will the UFC augment and diversify the agriculture sector. d. How will the UFC guarantee food security? e. How will the UFC up-skill famers and empower the small, medium and micro enterprises in this sector?
5. Public sector and Public service reforms policy/strategy: What is the public sector reform strategy of the UFC? It is a well-known fact that no economy can perform optimally without a sound and effective public sector. However, the public sector of Lesotho has been an instigator and a proponent to rampant corruption in the economy. Without public sector reforms that focus into reducing a bloated wage-bill and to curb rampant corruption, the economy will remain paralysed for some time. How will the UFC deal with the following? a. Instil discipline and an improved work ethic in the public service sector? b. Provide incentives such as medical aid cover (Police service), housing allowances, car allowances and education/skills support? c. Start reducing a bloated public service sector? d. How to deal with rampant corruption in the public sector? e. How will the UFC solve efficiency backlogs and improve effectiveness within the public service sector? E.g. High-court Kea leboha, ke tla mamela radiong. Khotso!