MASERU - The Lesotho Council of Non-Governmental Organisations (LCN) is optimistic its week-long reforms indaba will form part of the final national document despite a scare from some of the political parties who boycotted the event.
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July 26, 2019
LAWRENCE KEKETSO
3 min read
LCN optimistic about reforms
Lesotho Council of Non-Governmental Organisations (LCN)
The forum started Monday amidst attacks from some political parties outside parliament which felt they were not afforded their deserved participation in the event. The parties argued that they should have been made part of the organising structures of the forum. “This is a very rich consultation process which cannot just be overlooked. What we have here are organised formations and sectors of society with a rich content to inform the reforms processes,” said the LNC Executive Director, Seabata Motsamai in an interview. Although he said the final content would only be known when the consultations were concluded today (Thursday), Mr Motsamai was however positive that the engagement in the different rooms and venues were worthy and issues were thoroughly debated. “We have to say, this has been a very successful consultative initiative.
First we managed to create a platform for all the sectors and it was well attended. The different sectors were able to reflect on their roles in the peace building of the country and inform the processes that will lead to stability and the economic development of Lesotho,” said Mr Motsamai, adding that the forum also gave an opportunity to the different sectors to deliberate on cross-cutting issues that would inform policy and legislative processes on the national reforms. Some political parties which took part in the forum were also positive the outcome would enrich the national consultations undertaken under the auspices of the national committee on the reforms.
Gosene Djama of the African United Movement (AUM) said there was a clear light now on what the country could achieve through those consultations. “We have learned a lot this time around. We were not just making political debates, but this time around we had rich debates and even if we take political stands like to adopt a 100 percent proportional model of elections, we can argue reasonably and with understanding,” Mr Djama said.
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David Ntšihlele from the Marematlou Freedom Party (MFP) also commended the meeting, saying it was for all politicians to accept that there was need to build a new Lesotho which was above the ‘self’. “We were shown and we learned that unless we deal with our intra-party conflicts effectively and encourage and promote strong and independent institutions, Lesotho will never develop,” he said. On the other hand, the Acting Director of Media Institute of Southern Africa Lesotho Chapter (MISA-Lesotho), Lekhetho Ntsukunyane said the consultations did not only help MISA and its partners to articulate on the media reforms position paper that had been developed, but also opened an opportunity for more inputs into the paper.
“There are areas that we may have omitted or overlooked in our paper, but through these consultations, we have been able to cover more ground on what needs to be included in the media reforms,” Mr Ntsukunyane said. The consultations which began on Monday in Maseru end tomorrow with a report back plenary, where all the different sectors will give their summary reports.
Amongst the different groupings that have been called to the forum, are institutions and sectors such as the media, the legal fraternity, the judiciary, chieftaincy, civil society, women and children’s rights groups.
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