We are competing for scarce resources

Sekhooa se re; Where two or three are gathered in one place, conflict is inevitable. But what really causes conflict? What causes the current scourge of killings in Lesotho? We’ll find out but before we do that, let me share one short but interesting story. A few weeks ago, on the 5th of January, to be precise, reality hit the boss of me (The Mrs) that we have to get school for one of my nephews. Imagine, on the 5th of Jan and we were straight from holiday. I then suggested we go look for space at Machabeng College. When we arrived at the school gate, I told the Mrs that I’m reluctant to enter into the school-yard because I might meet some of my old teachers and they might want to dish out some of my old scandals to her. But then I thought, no, it’s been decades since I left high school, I’m sure all of the old teachers are gone and are somewhere at home, playing with their grandkids. So, I gladly ushered her in and gave her a mini-tour of the school. We passed through the entrance/foyer and the principal’s office. Then proceeded to the labs. We first passed through the physics lab, and I said, “I want to see if I’ll still remember everything. This was the physics lab.” Indeed it still was. We passed by the Chemistry lab and as we were about to pass the biology lab, I said, this was our Biology lab and we were taught Biology by Mrs So-and-So. Wait a minute, Mrs So-and-So was in the Biology lab and busy teaching students. I couldn’t complete my sentence because of the shock in my system. Mrs So-and-So was busy teaching Biology, in the same lab she first taught me in 1996. In 1996, back when Mandela was the President of South Africa, Ntate Ntsu was the Prime Minister of Lesotho and wait for this one, Queen ‘Masenate was still a student at Machabeng High School. I’m pretty sure she was taught Biology by the same teacher, around ’95/96 and now, Queen ‘Masenate has a daughter (Senate) that is about to go to varsity if not yet in varsity. Maybe she has completed her degree and about to do her master’s degree. But Mrs So-and-So (Cough-cough) is still teaching Biology and has been teaching it for the past 150 years. How’s that for consistency? In any case, I thought I should share that little story before we talk about something very serious. Why are we killing each other? That’s the question for the week. Before I forget, did you watch Squid Game during the holidays? Did you learn a thing or two about how people react and behave when resources start to diminish? They start killing each other in order to eliminate competition. Why are we killing each other? Here’s my theory; Lesotho is unbelievably small. I mean everyone is literally into every-one’s business. As you walk down Kingsway Street, there’s a high probability that most of the people you know, they know your scandals and chances are they even know your bank balance. That’s how tiny Lesotho is. I work with land and maps most of the time and one thing that I’ve discovered is that Lesotho is starved of land and space. One point of real concern is that there’s simply no land for development to generate jobs and to produce food. Prime land that’s located on the main arteries of our economy is being swallowed in chunks and so misused (no town-planning and people are building in the road reserves, chocking traffic on the main roads). It’s a real massacre of prime land and no consideration for future generations and this will deepen the crises of food security in years to come. But the problem with Lesotho is that it’s not only small and extremely poor. I mean there can never be peace and stability where people are hungry and desperate. Some have more than enough on their plates (a full chicken per plate) whilst a larger percentage of the population lives on almost nothing. Prime resources are allocated to a very few people and the rest of the population lives on bread crumbs (mafoforetsane). This then brews animosity, bitterness, anger and jealousy (boloi). Poverty has also bred social ills like rampant prostitution and the biggest problem challenge of cults and gangs (manomoro and likobo). This will breed terrorist acts if we are not careful. The same challenge of scarcity of resources can also be seen in the taxi industry. A saturated industry where supply way exceeds demand. In Lesotho, there are possibly more taxis than people and what is the end result of that? Conflict! Conflict that leads to death. Taxi drivers and taxi owners start killing each other because they are competing for scarce resources (passengers). The same applies for jobs. A vacant position is usually contested by well over 100 people and that leads to conflict. One person even alerted me to an interesting point that there are only 30 CEO’s/CEO positions in Lesotho. 30! Yes, you can start counting making a tally of the number of CEO’s. 1. LHDA, 2. Lesotho Housing, 3. WASCO……4. LEC, 5. LNDC, 6, Vodacom Lesotho…….7. Econet etc. The economic hardships of Lesotho are a result of an imbalanced economy where people compete fiercely for scarce resources. Our people are competing for land, jobs, education, health-care, housing, food and of-late, political positions. It’s a toxic environment. Few resources only for a few people! An ideal situation is to have resources (land, jobs, housing, education, health-care and food) to cover basic needs of most of the citizens. Not vice-versa. If Lesotho is serious about curbing the scourge of killings, it has to urgently address an imbalance between availability of resources and supply basic needs. Start creating jobs. Start feeding your people. Start educating your people. It’s as simple as that.