Maseru — Lesotho's official opposition boycotted the small mountain kingdom's biggest development planning conference yet on Wednesday in protest against the government's alleged mismanagement and failure to call new general elections.

The Lesotho Vision 2020 conference was opened by Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili in the capital Maseru as part of a national dialogue to develop long-term economic plans for the rural nation of 1,9 million citizens.

Basutoland Congress Party (BCP) leader Molapo Qhobela told African Eye News Service any co-operation with government initiatives risked legitimise Prime Minister Mosisili's administration.

"Government ignored our ultimatum to stage new elections by May 200 after discrepancies in the 1998 general elections. How can we therefore co-operate with this regime," said Qhobela.

Qhobela added that Lesotho's government had also repeatedly failed to table Auditor General reports on its expenditure since 1992 and was therefore effectively operating unconstitutionally.

"No government that refuses to be accountable will be able to develop an inclusive economic development plan. Mosisili must table audit reports before parliament detailing the financial state of the nation before we can seriously talk about development," said Qhobela.

Mosisili described the BCP's boycott as regrettable and warned the estimated 500 delegates at the conference that parties should not allow politicking to interfere in the small landlocked nation's long-term economic development. Calling for unity, Mosisili stressed that Lesotho Vision 2020 was non-partisan and was meant to develop government strategies for the next 20 years.

"Our neighbours, [South Africans] allege that we are very good at talking but hopeless when it comes to agreeing on implementing anything that we have discussed," said Mosisili.

South Africa deputy Reserve Bank governor and Lesotho citizen, Timothy Thahane, tabled a paper on the kingdom's economic status and the need for more focused and better co-ordinated development initiatives with larger neighbours such as South Africa.

"The conference is important for bringing together the diversity of knowledge, experience, views and beliefs in Lesotho for the first time to create coherent policies," added Lesotho government secretary Mohlabi Tsekoa.

Individual delegates voiced concern, however, that the conference was only the latest in a string of talk-shops which failed to make any real impact on Lesotho economic and budgetary policies.

"Previous conferences, which were very similar to this one, have passed excellent resolutions that government simply ignored. The only reason I have travelled all the way to Maseru to be here is to remind government about these earlier resolutions," said Mokhotlong district representative Sekhobe Letsie.

Lesotho, which is currently ranked 127th out of 174 countries on the United National human development index, exports mostly agricultural produce, textiles and handicrafts although only nine percent of the country's land is arable.

An average of 54 percent of the country's households have been classified poor by the UN Development Programme, which also notes that almost all machinery, construction equipment, electronics, petrol and processed food is imported.

Development planners hope to capitalise on the kingdom's higher than average literacy rate, at 71 percent, and the Lesotho Highlands Water Project which supplies drinking and irrigation water as well as hydro-electricity to South Africa's industrial heartland of Gauteng.

Lesotho Vision 2020 will, planners say, develop plans to use the nation's water recourses to boost revenue and create long term employment and investment opportunities. - African Eye News Service