“Electing a leader and party that don’t conform to OLD AND PAST practices of political parties is democracy… revolutionary democracy.” Nthakoana Ngatane
I see it’s only dawning on SOME Revolution For Prosperity members now that they signed a social contract that they didn’t understand – a contract of revolutionary democracy!
Three RFP members or constituencies have written to Secretary General Nthati Moorosi giving her an ultimatum to convene an elective conference within 60 days, or face court action.
Sadly their demands and their number (three) enjoy no standing or recognition in any constitutional provision of the party.
On the day that leader and now Prime Minister Sam Matekane launched the party, I remember him saying he had SELECTED people who helped him to pave the way for the launch of the party but I didn’t hear him say after two months or a year or after elections another committee would be elected.
When he went around the country canvassing, when people signed up as candidates, he introduced this committee that he had handpicked, or that his founding network had agreed on.
No one demanded a written commitment for new structures or election of committees as a condition to join the party.
Nonetheless I thought let me find the RFP constitution that is probably the guiding document so here are some clauses
Chapter 16 – ELECTIVE GENERAL CONFERENCE – 16.1 (a) The Elective General Conference shall be convened every five (5) years, not later than six (6) months after the end of the financial year.
Chapter 19 – SPECIAL GENERAL CONFERENCE – The Special General Conference shall be convened by the Executive Committee or at least at the request of the 50% (fifty percent) plus one (1) of the party structures eligible to participate in the party conferences, delivered to the Secretary General in writing.
Chapter 20 — EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE – 20.1 – ELECTIONS AND COMPOSITION – (b) The Executive Commitee shall hold office for five (5) years
Chapter 33 – AMENDMENT OF THE CONSTITUTION – The Constitution shall not be amended or altered in any way except by the sanction of the Executive Committee for the first and second amendment. The third amendment and other subsequent amendments shall be made after approval of the Annual General Conference or Special General Conference convened for that purpose.
So this is what Matekane means. This Executive committee, handpicked or not, can, legally, stay in office for the next five years unless it – the Executive committee – decides that there should be an election for its successor. Any one else who wants to change the committee has to bring a petition to the Secretary General signed by 50% plus one of the members – and the last time I checked, that membership stood near 100,000 – so 50% plus one would be 50,001.
Anyway is it possible for the rights of people who join associations like political parties to be protected against the party itself?
Let’s look at the National Assembly Electoral Act 2011:
REGISTRATION OF POLITICAL PARTIES
Section 24
(1) A political party may apply for registration with the commission (IEC) if
a) It is a party registered under the socieities Act 1966
b) It’s membership is voluntary and open to all citizens of Lesotho without discrimation on the grounds of race, colour, gender, language, religion, nationality, or social origin, property, birth or other status;….
f) it has a paid up membership of 500 electors
(6) The constitution of a political party tha intends to register with the Commission shall –
a) Provide for a procedure for the termination of membership
b) Provide for periodic and democratic election of its leadership
c) Establish the manner in which decisions are made
If RFP appeared on the ballot paper it clearly met all the qualifying criteria, especially the provisions for leadership and decision making.
But there is still one more instrument, supreme law – the Constitution of Lesotho. What does it say about the rights of individuals to associate and in an association?
Section 16. FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION
1. Every person shall be entitled to, and (except with his own consent) shall not be hindered in his enjoyment of freedom to associate freely with other persons for ideological, religious, political, economic, labour, social, cultural, recreational and similar purposes.
No one has the right to stop you from associating with people who think like you or believe in what you believe in – and so far neither Matekane nor RFP have prevented anyone from joining the party. But this is CHOICE, A VOLUNTARY CHOICE.
2. Nothing contained in or done under the authority of any law shall be held to be inconsistent with or in contravention of any law to the extent that the law in question makes provision–
- in the interests of defence, public safety, public order, public morality or public health;
- for the purpose of protecting the rights and freedoms of other persons; or
- for the purpose of imposing restrictions upon public officers.
So laws, rules, constitutions of an association are not illegal if they make provision for or don’t contravene a,b and c.
3. A person shall not be permitted to rely in any judicial proceedings upon such a provision of law as is referred to in subsection (2) except to the extent to which he satisfies the court that that provision or, as the case may be, the thing done under the authority thereof does not abridge the rights and freedoms guaranteed by subsection (1) to a greater extent than is necessary in a practical sense in a democratic society in the interests of any of the matters specied in subsection (2)(a) or for any of the purposes specied in subsection (2)(b) or (c).
- You can challenge a law, rule, constitution of an association only on the basis that it is discriminatory, but the test is always to show that the majority of members of that association agree with you – because it is voluntary association.
- Those RFP members who want elections will have proven then, that the majority of people who have VOLUNTARILY come together to form an association under the constitution of Lesotho, the Electoral Act 2011 and their own constitution- have now decided that they want to elect new leadership.
So is it possible that by joining RFP under only this constitution and in the absence of any other written commitment for committee elections the members forfeited any right to a different framework of time or conditions for elections?
I say it is.
The second issue is – do political parties need to, or have to have new committees after founding or elections are just but an option, not a must?
A political party is formed to advance a governance ideology. It campaigns to get buy-in from voters. In the case of RFP many Basotho bought the ideology and voted for the party in large numbers with a handpicked committee.
There is no law that compels political parties or associations to have elections, every party – ASSOCIATION – decides its own way as the Societies Act and the Electoral Act show. It is the majority of an association or party membership that must agree to do what is in their constitution.
I say the members who are threatening to go to court to demand elections have to first canvass within the party to determine if their desire for a new executive enjoys support from the majority (50% plus 1) of members.
Then again some Basotho joined RFP – a party with a handpicked committee – because they don’t or no longer believe structures with no merit, and as long as the party does what they believe it should do – DELIVER – they are happy.
Some ordinary Basotho who don’t know the inner influences of electing party committees, or who have felt excluded and even victimised by gatekeepers in those processes, prefer to know that no shenanigans were at play to elect the RFP executive.
Others are waiting for RFP members and legislators to show that their interest is real and selfless public service not power,
Ordinary Basotho want RFP members and legislators to replicate what Matekane has done in Mantšonyane, unite communities in agriculture and food production, building schools and other development.
Some Basotho just want decisive leadership that’s not held at ransom by people sitting in cumbersome structures who use or abuse loopholes to sabotage the party, government and the country.
And then there are people who just want Matekane to be Prime Minister. They want a Prime Minister who is a non career politician, who knows how to make money and wants everyone to be wealthy, to run the country differently than it has been for the past 50 years… period!
In case RFP legislators were not aware, some, probably many of them, were elected because people wanted Matekane to be Prime Minister.
I have heard many ordinary Basotho say the form of democracy that was sold to us doesn’t work for us. Some say even the Westminster model of parliament doesn’t work for us because the British designed it for their society and economy, not ours.
Maybe the reason other political parties are shadows of their former selves is that they promised their followers the OLD DEMOCRACY- power without hard work.
But Matekane has promised to recognise and reward love, dedication and commitment to Lesotho’s development, growth and success for all.
Matekane must remember that he is leading a revolution and change. He MUST articulate and convince RFP members what he means when he says “IT IS BEST TO DELIVER AND THEN ASK TO BE ELECTED AFTER FIVE YEARS”
And maybe, just maybe, political scientists who previously believed that the OLD AND PAST way we have been doing it is the only way, will also start to see that politics and democracy are defined by the society they are practiced in, in the day they are practiced…
Lesotho needs this revolution, so MATEKANE MUST CONVINCE RFP MEMBERS TO DELIVER AND THEN ELECT NEW LEADERSHIP…
