Thulo Hoeane
The tranquillity of a late autumn morning is suddenly broken by a deafening voice blaring out of a 3 000-watt sound system. Maseru suddenly comes to life as an off-white bakkie which has seen better days passes by, winding its way down Kingsway, the capital’s main street.
At the wheel of the bakkie is a dreadlocked, 50-something man who goes by the unlikely nickname of Black Jesus, or BJ. In a husky voice he repeatedly shouts into the microphone, ”Khakhaulane”, the opposition Basutoland Congress Party’s slogan, which symbolises a warrior’s club.
This is politics Lesotho-style. Although somewhat marred by apathy, unlike during previous campaigns, the mood in the mountain kingdom was getting into top gear this week for its elections on Saturday.
With unemployment estimated to be up to 70%, there is very little an ordinary person can expect out of these elections. Lesotho is riven by political division. In a country of nearly two million people, it is the personalities that matter, and hardly anyone cares about what the politicians are saying. Campaigning has become a mere ritual.
Prime Minister Ntsu Mokhehle is a shadow of a man and is hardly ever seen in public. He is so ill that he works only two or three hours a week, after he was put on a pace-maker three years ago.
The state of his health, a closely guarded secret, has been a constant worry for the ruling Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD), which hopes to use his popularity to see it through what political observers predict will be the most closely contested election ever held in Lesotho.
The traditional arch-rivalry between Lesotho’s oldest political parties, the Basutoland Congress Party (BCP) and the Basotho National Party (BNP), has been diluted by the formation of the LCD in early 1997.
Rivalry within the BCP resulted in the demise of this once invincible party, when 41 of its parliamentarians, led by Mokhehle, ”crossed the floor” to form the LCD 15 months ago.
Allegations of fraud were levelled at the LCD, to no avail. The BCP mounted a vigorous campaign of parliamentary boycotts, but its calls for mass stayaways were largely ignored. The LCD was unmoved by all the furore and continued with business as usual.
There are 10 political parties and 38 independent candidates squaring up for the poll. Eighty seats are being contested by 438 candidates.
The countdown to the elections got off to a stormy start when a vehicle belonging to the Independent Electoral Commission was mysteriously hijacked in Teyateyaneng, 50km north of Maseru, and election registration papers were found dumped in the Phuthiatsana River nearby.
The news provoked protest from the opposition, which approached the high court in an attempt to postpone the elections owing to the electoral commission’s ”incompetence and neglect”. The application was dismissed this week.