Ntsoaki Motaung
The Deputy Prime Minister Mathibeli Mokhothu says that other reform thematic areas have a greater influence in the stability of the country than others hence the decision to prioritise them.
Speaking at a media briefing in Maseru this week, following a Lesotho mission visit to the Republic of South Africa to report about the national reforms progress to the Former South African Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke who is Lesotho’s special envoy to the national peace situation.
“The National Reforms Authority (NRA) has decided to prioritise sectors such as Constitutional Reforms, Parliamentary Reforms, Justice and Law Reforms and Security Sectors Reforms, and it is NRA’S intention that reforms in those thematic areas be done by end of August,†he said.
Mokhothu indicated that prioritising these thematic areas will allow the country to prepare for the National Elections in 2022.
“We are not even saying reforms are meant for next year elections, but we do realise the importance of finding perpetual stability for the country after the 2022 elections. And we can now agree that the said sectors have a greater effect on the stability of the country,†he said.
“It is only when there is no political affiliation in the employment of institutions of accountability, when parliament is independent, when courts are empowered and security agencies reformed when we can have definite stability,†Mokhothu said.
He also indicated that dealing with constitutional reforms has revealed that there is going to be need for a referendum, because in most chapters of the reforms’ National Multi-Stakeholder Plenary II report, the public has requested reforming of double entrenched constitutional provisions.
Meanwhile, he lauded the NRA for progress attained thus far.
He said that the Authority has succeeded in creating the work and implementation plans.
“NRA has also started working on the Media Policy with all the stakeholders,†he said.
Meanwhile, for his part, the Minister of Law, Justice and Constitutional Affairs Nqosa Mahao indicated that, his Ministry is drafting laws which may have implications to the reforms process, hence they have decided to channel such drafts through NRA based on the public inputs as expressed in Plenary II.
“We cannot wait to have legislated all of the laws before we begin to push them through the system. If we did so, the system would simply clock and that then would expose the whole process to the risk of us not being able to finish the reforms process either by the end of August when SADC will be withdrawing from the country or the time that it set itself which is October 2021,†he said.
Mahao indicated that there is still a possibility that, the whole landscape of reforms may have not been consummated at the time and that is it becomes very important to prioritise.
