Comment

ELSEWHERE in this issue we carry a story of how parliament is moving swiftly in seeking to pass two critical amendments to the Constitution of Lesotho. The sections under review relate to the Foreign Service and National Security Agencies. The amendments are part of a raft of changes that have been proposed under Lesotho’s national …

Prime Minister Sam Matekane recently declared a national food insecurity disaster effective from July 12 this year until the next harvest around March next year. The declaration comes after a recent vulnerability assessment study showed that at least 700 000 Basotho need emergency food aid now until the next harvest or they will starve.

A Commission of Inquiry set up to investigate the dramatic escape of inmates at the Maseru Correctional Facility in December last year has so far managed to expose the rot in the Lesotho’s prison system. We know from previous reports by the Ombudsman that Lesotho’s prisons are generally in a terrible state. The overcrowding, the …

AFTER reading last week’s lead story, most of our readers might rightly have concluded, “Here we go again!” It has become a tradition in Lesotho for any new government to seek to oust statutory position holders when it takes over power and replace them with its own cronies.

LAST week we reported about the sale of Mothae Diamond Mine to a company owned by Minister Lebona Lephema. Australia’s Lucapa Diamond Company said it had sold its 70% stake in Mothae to Lephema’s Executive Transport Company for a nominal A$10 000 (about M121 000).

Over the past few weeks, this newspaper has carried gripping stories about how some prisoners were brutally tortured at the Maseru Correctional Facility last December. Last week’s story, for the first time, graphically illustrated how a prisoner was brutally murdered during the assault. That assault was caught on Closed-Circuit Television Footage (CCTV).

IN this edition we carry a story of the chaos at the traffic department. The story reveals how department officials and the connected few have corrupted the system to amass taxi permits which they rent out at vulgar prices to people desperate for routes. As a result of the sleaze that has been allowed to …

IN this edition we carry a story of the chaos at the traffic department. The story reveals how department officials and the connected few have corrupted the system to amass taxi permits which they rent out at vulgar prices to people desperate for routes. As a result of the sleaze that has been allowed to …

It is not hard to understand Prime Minister Sam Matekane’s rationale for appointing Borotho Matsoso as the police commissioner. He is a law graduate who had a long stint as a senior in the police and headed the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Offences (DCEO) for years. The prime minister was probably looking for an …

IT would appear the government of Lesotho is set to tweak a controversial law that was meant to reserve certain sections of the economy to indigenous Basotho. This is not surprising given the hostile reception from foreign businesses operating in Lesotho following the enactment of the law about a year ago. In a statement last …