MASERU- Police have issued a very strong warning to youth intending to march to parliament tomorrow (Friday).
This is after a group of concerned youth resolved to march to parliament after what they call “failure by Premier Moeketsi Majoro to attend to their grievances.
The youth want to petition the leader of the House to revoke the Members of Parliament (Amendment of schedule) regulation of 2020 as it entitles the legislators to M5, 000 tax-free petrol allowances.
“We do not have any application by any grouping for a march or any public gathering, and that means we are not expecting anyone on the streets in that fashion.
“Going for a march without a permit is a criminal offence, and that means police shall deal with whoever is on the streets accordingly. We are therefore calling for obedience of the law,” said police spokesperson Senior Superintendent Mopeli.
However one of the march’s organizers Mr Motsamai Mokotjo said police should not misdirect themselves.
“On August 10, 2021 we delivered a letter to the prime minister, requesting permission to organize a march to parliament on August 20, 2021 from 9:00am to 1:00pm and that letter was well received. We gave ntate Majoro to respond to us by August 13, 2021, and failure to do so would be taken as consent and we’d go ahead with our march, hence the determination to commence with our organized march which has long been on the cards,” said Mokotjo.
“Police are misdirected and they know very well that we did apply for the march and they rejected it citing some health regulations, which of course do not supersede the Constitution, hence we explored other avenues and wrote straight to the PM.
“In the letter we made it very clear that if he did not respond to us by the set date, we’d take that as a consent to go ahead. So the march is still on. We have noted these threats by the police, but we are not going to let them dampen our spirits,”stated Mokotjo.
The march will start at Moshoshoe I’s monument to the new parliament building atop Mpilo hill.
