Lesotho
Sechaba ka’Nkosi
The opposition Basotholand Congress Party (BCP) in Lesotho is deeply divided with some members attempting to oust its president, Molapo Qhobela. They want to replace him with executive member Deborah Khaulelo Raditapole, who is being touted by some in the opposition alliance as Lesotho’s future first woman prime minister.
The party offered bad preparation for its congress last week as a reason why two crucial matters – the election of a national executive committee and amendments to its constitution – were deferred to another congress scheduled for the Easter weekend.
But Raditapole said she does not consider herself to be the best candidate to take the party to the next millennium. “Ntate [father] Qhobela is on leave and he will be back full-time with the party in March,” she said. “According to our constitution, the president has to serve a five-year term and because he was only elected last year, he still has four more years to steer the party.”
The BCP constitution allows for a leader to be replaced if he or she cannot perform duties diligently. But insiders claim the ailing Qhobela will not surrender to the widely respected Raditapole.
The first public split within the BCP leadership took place two years ago between Qhobela and Lesotho’s former prime minister, the late Ntsu Mokhehle, who then founded the breakaway Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD). The LCD assumed power with 40 of the 65 members of Parliament crossing the floor.
In the past few months, Raditapole has become the most influential person in Basotho politics. Last year she was appointed co-chair of the Independent Political Authority (IPA), set up after the Southern African Development Community (SADC)intervention last year to ensure free and fair elections take place within 18 months.
Despite doubts about the IPA’s ability to meet that deadline, Raditapole has been working relentlessly. She led the opposition’s walkout of the IPA last year to protest against funding from the government. After a meeting with SADC leaders, their concerns were addressed.
Fellow co-chair of the IPA, advocate Lekhetho Rakuane, describes Raditapole as one of the few pragmatists in Lesotho: “She is people centred. Raditapole showed her integrity when she resigned from the Cabinet voluntarily after the split which gave birth to the LCD. During her reign as minister of health she took decisions that favoured people at the expense of her own political party.”
Raditapole downplays her importance in national politics: “Perhaps my understanding of politics is simplistic because I always opt for what is good for my country.”
At Mokhehle’s memorial service last year, Raditapole refused to reflect the bitter rivalry between their parties. Instead she spoke of him as a father, a teacher and a statesman: “His death should bring to us the ability to revive the ideals for which he lived, and for which he died.”
The 60-year-old childless pharmacist concedes her tasks are daunting. But she says she has accepted them as a national call: “We have problems among political parties in Lesotho. But sometimes the national interests override those problems.”
Raditapole has been through thick and thin in Basotho politics. When the country gained independence in 1966, she was studying pharmacy on a scholarship in Russia. She was branded a communist by Chief Leabua Jonathan and was only allowed home in 1981 when the government invited her to head a pharmaceutical company it had founded.
She returned with a Tanzanian passport and had to renew her residence permit every year until her full citizenship was restored in 1987.