Basotho Action Party (BAP) leader, Nqosa Mahao, has laid into Prime Minister Moeketsi Majoro and his deputy, Mathibeli Mokhothu, over their alleged incompetence.
Addressing thousands of BAP supporters at a weekend rally in 'Makhoroana, Berea, Professor Mahao, said Dr Majoro and Mr Mokhothu had lost track and were failing to run the country.
"We have learnt with dismay that pupils in some schools are not being fed as per the school feeding programme and this is a clear indication that the current government just doesn't care about learners from poor families," Prof Mahao charged.
"We have also been to Maluti Hospital (in Berea) and we were told that the hospital wasn't allocated an adequate budget to enable it to purchase medication. As a result, doctors have resorted to writing prescriptions for patients who have to go elsewhere to buy the medication.
"To Majoro and Mokhothu, I say this is very embarrassing. It shows that you have lost your way. I wish that you could go back to doing things the right way and take care of these pupils and patients," Prof Mahao said.
He said the ever-widening gap between the rich and the poor was the main dividing factor in Lesotho, not politics or religion.
"Hence, we as the BAP, have deliberately chosen to be on the side of the poor. Most of Basotho are poor and it seems we are the only party concerned about this situation. There will never be peace and unity while others are living it up and others are struggling to get by.
"This is why we have taken it upon ourselves to come up with policies to uplift the poor and vulnerable. A BAP government will introduce low-income housing for all Basotho. We will ensure that there is beneficiation of our produce. Wool and mohair will be processed locally to create more jobs for our people.
"We will do things differently from the previous (Thomas Thabane-led) administration which made it compulsory for Basotho to only sell their wool and mohair via a foreign broker."
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Prof Mahao was referring to the controversial 2018 regulations which prohibited farmers from selling their wool and mohair from outside Lesotho as they had done for over 40 years until 2018.
The regulations compelled farmers to sell their produce via the Lesotho Wool Centre (LWC) in Thaba Bosiu, a joint venture between wool and mohair farmers and the Chinese-owned Maseru Dawning. The farmers control 75 percent while Maseru Dawning controls the remaining 25 percent.
The farmers however, preferred selling their fabric via South African brokers, among them BKB, saying they were assured of quick and higher payments than those from the LWC. The regulations were eventually amended in 2020 to allow farmers to sell their produce through brokers of their choice.
Prof Mahao also lamented the breakdown in the rule of law, saying, "We are living in a very difficult time where crime is rife".
"We cannot fight crime without capacitating and adequately resourcing our police force. We must capacitate the police because crime has spiralled out of control. Our police should be capacitated with investigative skills so that they desist from torturing suspects. They need adequate resources to quickly attend to crime scenes.
"Besides that, the police force is under the influence of politicians and it should be depoliticised without further do," Prof Mahao said.
He said among others, they were confident of wresting Moselamane constituency which was currently represented by his erstwhile All Basotho Convention (ABC) colleague, Samuel Rapapa.
