… as warring factions of the party fail to negotiate NKOATE THAMAE The ruling All Basotho Convention (ABC)’s political fortunes continue to be showing signs of a possible split over internal disagreements about the recently elected National Executive Committee (NEC) which has been interdicted by Lesotho High Court from performing administrative duties. Party leader Prime Minister Thomas Motsoahae Thabane on Saturday, March 17, 2019, held a political rally at Likhoele constituency in Mafeteng while his Deputy Leader Professor Nqosa Leuta Mahao held another rally at Ha Foso Berea on the same day. According to political analysts, those were the clear signs that the highly anticipated negotiations to resolve the stalemate within the ABC has failed and the court was yesterday expected to hear a case in which three members of the party are challenging the party together with 43 other respondents over the confirmation of the new National Executive Committee (NEC) into the party. This comes after the court on Tuesday received information from the applicants lawyers that negotiations on amicable settlement between the parties have failed. The court through Justice ‘Maseforo Mahase had on March 6, 2019 allowed time for the parties to enter into negotiations for a possible settlement out of court and ordered that the Court’s Deputy Registrar Advocate Realeboha Makamane mediate the negotiations and that parties should report to the Deputy Registrar on or before March 19. It was also Justice Mahase’s order that should the parties fail to reach settlement, the court will holistically hear their case on March 20 and deliver its judgement full or extempore on March 29, 2019 at 09:30. As per the order, applicants lawyers on Tuesday approached Deputy Registrar’s office and reported that negotiations on a possible amicable settlement out of court between them have failed after which it was agreed that the case should be referred back to the judge to hear arguments between the parties to finality. In the meantime, according to the filed case in which the applicants are Habofanoe Lehana, Keketso Sello and Mohapi Mohapinyane, they are pleading with the court to ask the 44 respondents to show cause if any why the first respondents being ABC shall not be interdicted from confirming its purported new national executive committee elected during its recent conference pending finalization of this case. The applicants also want the party’s NEC to show cause why it shall not be interdicted from handing over the property of the party to the purported newly elected committee pending the final determination of this application. Applicants also want the respondents to show reasons why the purported newly elected members of the party’s NEC shall not be interdicted from assuming the administration of the party pending finalization of this case. They again want the same respondents to say why the NEC election results announced by the Lesotho Council of Non-Governmental organisation (LCN) shall not be declared null and void. The three applicants further want the party and its NEC to show cause why they cannot be ordered to prepare for and hold fresh elections within a period of three months of finalization of this case. Alternative to the above two prayers, the applicants want the respondents to tell the court why it cannot direct that the complaints be directed to the dispute resolution committee in terms of the party’s constitution. The Metro managed to cover the different political rallies at the same time. While addressing youth league conference in Leribe, Thabane advised youth to work out issues amongst themselves without resorting to courts of law as per the party’s constitution. He said members must abide by party constitution and he countered the notion that the constitution is wrong. In his speech at the political rally which was held at Likhoele Mafeteng, Thabane noted that the recent elective conference had given rise to some differences which saw sections of the party dragging each other to court. “I appeal to all of you ABC members to avoid defeating the end of justice but allow courts to decide on our case,” Thabane said. Thabane further urged ABC members to refrain from exchanging accusing words on both social media and radio stations as that would cause further divisions within the party. He said he was aware that most Basotho are living far below the poverty line and he urged his ministers to think outside the box and do something to reduce pervasive poverty in the country. “ABC was elected into power to make a significant difference to the lives of Basotho therefore let us stand up and be committed to providing outstanding service delivery to our electors,” Thabane said. The ABC leader disclosed that the recent 2019/20 budget has allocated some money aimed to create 8 300 jobs for youths only. Thabane counselled his followers that when a party grows, it comes across many challenges hence there is need to find solutions to problems without any favoritism. He added he did not hesitate to acknowledge that the government under his leadership is facing challenges such as the high unemployment rate, poor service delivery, problems with the Wool and Mohair and teachers’ strike issues. The recent budget speech, he said, was mainly focused on the improvement of service delivery and creation of jobs. The government, he further disclosed, is already dealing with the wool and mohair saga and farmers are already getting their payments. “The only challenge with wool and mohair is the challenges we encounter at the South Africa boarder gate when we are supposed to export it, but we will eventually overcome that problem as well,” Thabane said. He assured supporters that the government is dealing with teachers’ strike and schools would resume normal operations in the near future. ABC chairperson, Motlohi Maliehe criticised the Court of Appeal’s decision to overlook ABC’s constitution clause 5e which stipulates that any member who drags the party to the courts of law should be deemed to have automatically dismissed himself or herself from the party. Maliehe explained that the court’s decision was going to set a bad precedence on Basotho societies’ constitutions. Thabane is the only leader of the party, he said, and urged ABC members to stop running after people who are going to lead them astray. Such misconduct, he said, was pure rebellion against ABC’s leadership. Meanwhile Professor Nqosa Leuta Mahao at the political rally which was held at Ha Foso in Berea said Lesotho is among the top eight countries worldwide out of 192 countries with a huge gap between rich and poor people, according to a study. Mahao said Lesotho also ranks highly among countries with a high proportion of people living far below the poverty line, in addition to being among the top 10 countries worldwide with a high rate of murder cases. In addition, he explained that Lesotho education’s system had dismally declined recently compared to other Southern Africa Development countries (SADC). Lebohang Hlaele said there was absolutely nothing wrong when public gatherings are held without permission from ABC’s interim executive committee. Hlaele said he was surprised by the political rally held at Likhoele where all constituencies were cordially invited to attend the party leader’s rally, explaining that such practice is excised in the general elections not at the level of normal constituency gathering where neighbouring constituencies members may voluntarily attend without being forced. He lashed out at some among ABC leaders who always claim they support Thabane more than the rest. “Who is not supporting Thabane?” Hlaele asked. Such elements, he continued, do not genuinely support Thabane but are just pushing their own interests, adding the same people had influenced Thabane to attend the rally at Likhoele to spite Mahao. “If they want to be a minority government, we will hit hard on them,” Motlatsi Maqelepo a member of Berea constituency said. Maqelepo alleged there was a clique in ABC which awards lucrative tenders to the Chinese expecting kickbacks in return. PULL QUOTE “If they want to be a minority government, we will hit hard on them” . Let’s find pictures of two different rallies