OWN CORRESPONDENT, Maseru | Thursday 9.00pm.
LESOTHO civil servants who took part in the recent mass protests are to lose their jobs. The government, in what is seen by some as a heavy-handed measure in the middle of delicate multi-party negotiations, has indicated that those any did take part in the mass actions should resign.
Lesotho foreign minister Tom Thabane told SABC TV that the government had evidence identifying those who took part. “There will be no arbitrary firings,” he said. “We will follow normal civil service procedures for dismissal.”
The mass protests began in August when demonstrators gathered at the palace in Maseru to protest against the results of the May election, which opposition parties claim was rigged. The protesters chased civil servants from their offices, prevented them from returning to work and hijacked government vehicles.
The violence culminated in the intervention in Lesotho by a Southern African Development Community task force of South African and Botswana troops and the looting and burning of Maseru by local vandals.
Thabane denied that the move against the civil servants is inflammatory, coming as it does in the middle of delicate negotiations to normalise the situation in Lesotho. SADC-led talks between the various conflicting parties are set to continue on Monday.
“It is not inflammatroy,” Thabane said, adding that it was “a frank way of addressing the law”. When the LDP govenrment came to power, he said, it instructed civil servants not to take part in partisan politics. If they did, they would be punished.
“That time has come,” he said.