Marching to nowhere
By Scrutator
| W |
E are a marching and protesting country. We march for anything and picket for everything.
We spit fire when we are angry.
That we, Basotho, are naturally good dancers and average singers makes our marches and protests spectacular.
The women gyrate (Oh they can move those hips) while the men stomp their feet (they raise their gumboots), in a well choreographed style.
The results are marvellous processions that entertain with the rhythm of the human bodies and the melody of the singing voices.
So why is it that we never get what we want after marching and protesting?
How come we never get things done even with our fantastic protest styles?
The problem lies with the substance and target of our protests.
We like dancing and singing so much that we neglect the real motives of our protests.
We are yet to master the art of selecting our protest targets and articulating our grievances with elegance.
We shout things that don’t matter and muddle the real issues.
| O |
n Monday that national shortcoming was apparent when some 300-odd factory workers marched to Prime Minister Tom Thabane’s office, brandishing a short petition over wage increases.
As with other protests, this one was entertaining on things that don’t matter and disappointing on real issues.
The dances were beautiful and the singing fantastic but when it came to the real agenda it went off topic.
The M2 020 minimum wage issue was the main agenda of the protest but somewhere along the way the protesters veered to trivial issues which had nothing to do with their cause.
Out of the blues, there was a suggestion that the labour minister should be fired.
His crime, as it later emerged, was that he was “of no use to the factory workers” because he was not dealing with their grievances.
A march whose purpose was to push for better wages had been turned into a “disciplinary hearing” for a government minister.
A judgment had been delivered by the mob and Thabane was only supposed to act on it.
The main point of the march had been lost because an irrelevant issue had been smuggled to the table and the target was wrong.
The factory workers were complaining to the wrong person about a wrong person.
Someone must have reminded them that Thabane, no matter how willing he might be, has no power to decide what the factory owners should earn.
Someone must have told them that neither the current labour minister nor any other minister who will come after him will give them M2 020.
Their anger should be directed at their employers not the coalition government or its ministers.
Instead of bothering this polygamous government they must go back to the factories and ratchet up pressure on their employers.
They should squeeze the pennies out of those stingy employers.
| I |
t would have been better had the workers and their union leaders not tried to buttress their case with half truths.
They alleged that the political parties in the coalition government promised them a minimum wage of M2 020 during their campaigns.
Scrutator was one of those who used to believe that the M2 020 minimum wage was actually an election promise until she went into the archives.
It turns out that there was never such a promise.
The M2 020 figure was a creation of Macaefa Billy, the man who leads the Lesotho Workers Party, the ABC’s former nyatsi.
He made the demand in his capacity as the leader of the Factory Workers’ Union.
The coalition parties said they would improve wages in the factory industry but did not mention figures.
In any case, there is nothing magical about that M2 020 figure apart from the fact that it represents a pipe dream dreamt by 40 000 factory workers in Lesotho.
A big dream dreamt by many people does not always come true.
The factory workers have a fatter chance of seeing the government meeting its overly ambitious 2020 vision than they have of getting M2 020 from their employers this year.
Scrutator is not saying factory workers don’t deserve M2 020 but she understands why they can’t get it.
| W |
ith hindsight, Scrutator realises that it will be foolhardy for her to criticise the factory workers for missing the target and losing the plot of their march on Monday.
How can they do better in a country where people have a passion for protesting to wrong people and for wrong reasons?
Take, for instance, the brouhaha over the monies people lost in MKM.
People were marching to government offices when the guy who swindled them is alive, kicking and free.
Libe Moremoholo, that garrulous former ABC MP who was once spanked for pinching pittances from parliament, recently handed a petition to Tommy about MKM.
The result was obvious: Nothing happened because the protests were targeted at the wrong person.
Remember the border crisis caused by the previous government.
People pointed long fingers at the South African government when the real culprit was the clumsy government of Lesotho.
The result was obvious: the problem has not been sorted because we protested to the wrong people.
Most recently, there is a push for the government to remove Sharon Siverts, the vice-chancellor of the National University of Lesotho.
Last Friday a group of workers from the troubled university submitted a petition to the council, demanding that Siverts be fired.
Although the group was right to direct their petition to the council as Siverts’ employer it forgot that the council is not run by mobocracy.
A VC is not fired simply because cleaners, librarians, caretakers and lecturers have demanded so.
An employment contract is between the employee and the employer not the employee and fellow employees.
Workers cannot demand the dismissal of another worker.
The people at NUL should know better that their toyi-toying antics are therefore misdirected.
| O |
n an entirely different matter, Scrutator did not know that the word “reiterate” was capable of giving some people nightmares until she read a story from a beleaguered country north of Lesotho.
Elizabeth Tsvangirai, the wife of the Zimbabwean Prime Minister known more for his sexual escapades than political ideas, was the victim.
It took the newly married sister six attempts and 37 seconds in her battle to say the word “reiterate”.
It came out as reillutrate, reillu… illustrate, reillutrate, reillutrate, illurate.
No matter how hard she tried, sister Liz stumbled.
In the end she settled for “iterate” and then motored through her speech.
Someone in the audience must have said: “Hey, the word is “re-i-te-ra-te”, you illiterate wife of an illiterate Prime Minister. Why bother speak a language when you can’t speak it properly?” And to think some misdirected souls want to trace Scrutator’s roots to a country with such buffoons.
Ache!
scrutator29@gmail.com
Comment by mju on 1 November 2012:
Scrutator,
Is this your first time to hear the factory workers demand that the minister of labour be dismissed upon failure to resolve wage disputes? The only honest answer you will give is no. But why is it your first time to make this kind of remark? You see, speaking for the coalition government, will not make it the better government, because nothing important will come from them. These people have lied to the nation period and as such should be branded as such. If the issue of wages is between the employer and the employee as you ignorantly say, why do we have the ministry of labour and employment? Mehleng ee ea coalition lekala leo ke molemong oa maleo, e seng ho sebetsa litaba tsa basebetsi ho kenyeletsa le ba lifeme? Khale re batla ho utloa u bolela phatlalatsa hore M2 020.00 e ke se fihlelehe ha bobebe, tlas’a maemo a moruo. Ka masoabi e sa le u thola ka lilemo basebetsi ba lifeme tse ts’oanang ba rohaka Mosisili ba ‘matla M2 020.00, le hore a tebele matona e seng letona. Haeba taba tsee tsa hao u batla re li nkele hloohong, u n’u tholetseng ka nako eo? Nakong e tlang u k’u ngole ka mosebetsi oa letona khiro le bosebetsi ke tle ke utloe hore na ho kena lipakeng tsa mohiri le mosebetsi ha se o mong oa eona. Motho h’a le selehe joaloka Maloi tjena, leha u ka leka ho ‘muella ha lekholo, o tla lula a ntse a le selehe. O tlontlolla matichere monna eno.
U tl’u bone hore u lahlehetsoe ke ‘methele, Scrutator, Libe h’a qale ho etsa mokoloko ka taba tsa MKM ‘musong ona. Empa ka lebaka la hore u sengoli se lehlahetsoeng ke integrity, u ile ua iphapanya joaloka beng ba lifaraki, nakong eo setlaela seno se neng se ntse se potela Mosisili ka taba tseo u hlokomelang kajeno hore they were misdirected. Ho joalo feela ka NUL vs LUTARU. Taba tsena kaofela li tsoa ‘musong o fetileng, ‘me u n’u thotse fuku ka tsona.
Makhooa a re ‘fools learn through experience’. E le hore le uena before things happen to you it’s hard to comprehend such fandamental issues underlying all these unfounded grievances formerly levelled against Mosisili’s governement and inherited by your beloved Thabane. The difference is that,ho Thabane ho etsoa mokoloko o se nang mahlapa, ha ho Mosisili baetapele ba tsamaea le malinyane a rohakanang ka mahlapa a tala, feela ho thoe a tsoe a ilo amohela lengolo le tsamaisoang ka mahlapa.
On a serious note,is this how you want us to perceive you? If not please clear yourself on this.
Likhomo.
Comment by Rotelletsa on 1 November 2012:
Set textile minimum wage at M2020, and let all textile factories get closed. We will be left with 40 000 unemployed Basotho, and obliterated textile unions. If you want to get rid of Chinese running textle firms it will be an easy decision to take, but if you want to add 40 000 people to poverty list, while you slogan and motto is, “sera sa motho ke tlala,” it will be difficult to do so because it will be political suicide. So the Coalition government is not going to do anything about increasing mim wage to M2020. It is up to workers to knock on the correct door and picket there. The coalition government is busy laying out a programme to win support of much larger number of supporters than these group that is creating a nuisance instead of talking to their employers and running to the government which has responsibility over an unemployed people as well. In short this group is not coming up with solutions themselves. They just want to dump problems at the footsteps of government. Their unions are also useless. They just deduct membership fees just to survive, and not do a proper job of negotiating with employers for better pay and working conditions. They just want to dump problems at the door of the government.
Comment by Taole on 1 November 2012:
Well said Mju. Scru can be so shallow sometimes one wonders whether he was caught of guard, when he woke up it was Wedneday evening and he found himself having to scribble something for the sake of it! Nxa, Scru this article lacks proper analysis. You even miss the point that the workers continue to take petitions to government because the very same people who are in government today were not only promising them 2020, but were protesting against Mosisili’s administration WITH them. Remember Scru? This is why the industrial area became a no go area for Mosisili while the other political leaders were welcome! Workers were infuriarated to the extent that there were physical confrontations. What was your reaction? It was ok then because of your imbalanced assessment of the situation. How could Mosisili receive petitions from people who were threatening his life?
Comment by kido on 1 November 2012:
Empty Scru!!!! Wonder if you are even aware that NUL lecturers got paid their 3 months salaries after protesting!
Comment by LEKHOARA on 1 November 2012:
haele basebetsi ba lifeme bona ba lora toro ea Faro ka 2020, ba nahana hore ke bona feela ba kholang chelete e nyane Lesotho moo. It is only an idiot who can believe that government can increase the minimum wage to 2020. Bo-ralipolotiki khale ba thetsa batho ka ho ba tsepisa meputso e ntlafetseng since BCP era 1992, since then factory workers’ salaries are still low, there is no magic that can be done, our economy is weak.
Ka MKM le NUL VC, e ntse ele toro tse tsoanang le ea lifeme…
Comment by KEMISTO on 1 November 2012:
you will find petrol at the petrol filling station not the fruit market…to get 2020 you have to go to the right fourum
Comment by Maru-mats'o on 1 November 2012:
Upfront I should state that I’m deeply worried that our people continue to be paid peanuts for their hard work. But at the same time, I must confess that I understand the challenge the new government is facing of having to secure jobs at a time when the second wave of global recession is looming large. However, I should express my dismay at how some people and journalists who pretend to be in the know twist facts and throttle the truth to suit their interests. Shameful double standards! The majority of the Maseru-based pseudo-intellectuals and some political apparatchiks were quiet when factories were turned into political battlegrounds and de facto turf for the ABC and its allies, and a no-go area for Mosisili and his party. Nobody of the vociferous public commentators condemned this. Now the same people who pretended to be the champions of the workers and the poor are silent when their political disciples are up in arms against their masters. Instead of teaching people clean politics, political tolerance and accepting difference, these anarchist “intellectuals”, were instigating violence and cheering on when DC members were beaten up and ridiculed. Some Jonny-come-latelies even unashamedly mocked sensible and knowledgeable people, making them look stupid for bringing a different perspective to the debate as long it appeared to be pro-government/pro-Mosisili. Now the chickens have come home to roost! As it is said, “You can fool some of the people all the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all the time.” Political euphoria and cheap populism are dangerous and cancerous because even some religious people fell into the trap of dragging God’s name into dirty politics instead of preaching decency and unity.
Now turning to NUL, I think the NUL lecturers should live up to their challenge of being academics. They are academics by choice, and they should stop grumbling all the time. I don’t understand this moral high ground they have of appealing to Council and the Government to sack the VC, willy-nilly. It can’t be in a democratic country. Her rights are protected by the constitution. As subordinates, we should learn the art of “managing our bosses”, not protesting all the time. Crying doesn’t help.
Comment by Motlotsuoa on 1 November 2012:
Iam deeply troubled by fools like Mju who feel they have a better right to critises other people while what they do is to lie lie lie… Mju ngoaneso in case you have conveniently forgotten like a schooled witness in the dock, let me freely refresh your memory. Ntata lona Mosisili was one of the most vulgar leaders I have ever come across, I remember him saying basali ba lifeme ba se ke ba motlela ka litjale….. e tellang tsotsi banna he, kapa ke hobane ane a sena relative e sebetsang lifemeng?. Its a fact that MKM saga was initiated by msisili’s government and its approach was very responsible for this disaster. MJU are so stupid not to know that the relations between the gov. and the employment sector is very sensitive and thefore should be handled as such… ache oa phoqa!!. O tsebe uena semakuoa tooe srurator ha esale a ngolajoale ke ea bona ono o batla a ngole tsena ka nakoe batloang ke uena, se!!! typical le potoana le re tlelang ka litanka joalo ka likalajane tse ba li adorang feela li tella. Amohelang hore ho felile ka ho leqetsa ha lona joale ho sebeletsoa sechaba hele nxa.
Comment by TOALA on 2 November 2012:
HOSENG HONA HA KE MAMETSE MANTSOE A MOTLOTLEHI HA A BUA SEHOPOTSONG SA TATE MOLETSANE KEILE KA TIBISA MAIKUTLO HA RE HAELE VC O NA LUTSE SETULO SE MOTSU LE BOHLE BAO E BILENG LI VC NUL!!! EBE SHARON U NO KA LOKA NAHENG EE EO HO SENANG MOHLA BATHO RE KHOTSOFALANG BO MR PAKALITHA HOTHOE PUSONG EA 15 YEARS THEY ACHIEVED ZERO KAJENO LIKHAU TSEO BA LI FILOENG KE BO LIMKOMKWING BA BA BANG LE BONA BA LI AMOHETSE CHE BONA HOTHOE LI EA BA T’SOANELA ANYWAY!! HISTRY WILL KEEP REPEATING ITSELF IT IS HARD TO SATISFY A HUMAN BEING E MONG LE MONG HAA BATLA MATLA O BUA E MONG HAMPE E BE LI T’SEPISO LE MASHANO A MANGATA FEELA
Comment by mju on 2 November 2012:
Motlotsuoa,
“Its a fact that MKM saga was initiated by msisili’s government and its approach was very responsible for this disaster.” With due respect, Mr Bitter, this is not clear to me. If you could be kind enough to make it clear, I will be able to engage.
“MJU are so stupid not to know that the relations between the gov. and the employment sector is very sensitive and thefore should be handled as such… ache oa phoqa!!” This is also not clear to me. Please be kind enough to engage me in your views, then I will be able to participate. This is for real, I don’t mean to embarrass you.
“O tsebe uena semakuoa tooe srurator ha esale a ngolajoale ke ea bona ono o batla a ngole tsena ka nakoe batloang ke uena, se!!! typical le potoana le re tlelang ka litanka joalo ka likalajane tse ba li adorang feela li tella. Amohelang hore ho felile ka ho leqetsa ha lona joale ho sebeletsoa sechaba hele nxa.”
I don’t get the message clearly from the above statement. It is like a tale told by an idiot full of sound and fury, but signifying nothing. Are sure you are ok?
Comment by AGAIN on 2 November 2012:
“Lesotho has the unenviable distinction of having a somewhat chequered history. By digression, hardly a month ago, the Prime Minister was hinting in his campaign speeches that though Limkokwing University was a good institution for Lesotho, a lot had to be desired about its establishment, operations and funding so much that he would urge it to be probed once he assumed the reins of power.
But lo and behold: the Prime Minister has how been conferred with and accepted an Honorary Doctorate from,guess which university? Limkokwing. Remember he recently criticized the former Prime Minister for accepting the same conferment.
Your take is good as mine that this university will never be probed as the country’s top man had promised. You see with us Basotho it is our stock-in-trade to take this nation for a ride. However, I better pause here as this debate belongs to another day.
I merely wanted to show that if the country’s top politician has the guts to take this nation for a ride, then there is nothing unusual for prison authorities to have the gall to take us for a ride.
Comment by kompi on 2 November 2012:
For the first u making sense scrutator
Comment by Ts'olo on 3 November 2012:
This unbelievable from Scru.., when did you learn that Government does not pay workers salaries? Where were you last year when they chased Mosisili from Thetsane area because he could not promise them 2020 while your other so favorite politicians were the “sun shines” of those workers because they promised something Mosisili could not,(2020).You really need to be consistent with your analyses or else I will consider you as one big lier like this now ruling politicians.
Comment by mohlalefi on 6 November 2012:
Chaba Seso Lumelang:
Chaba sa heso se hahiloe ke bana ba Peete,Motho oa Malimo,Ho feta mang kapa mang.LELAPA leso; Ke hlompho,ke lerato,ke boikokobetso hore Chaba seso Lumelang.Ha Basotho ba ne ba shebane le mathata.Bare”
Beng ba taba tsene ba ile kae?
Makotoko le Selebalo, le teng.
Ke lona beng ba taba tsena.
Ngoahang ola ka Ntoa ea Lithunya.”
Ooa,Mokoena!
That’s where I hail from.
Comment by Your DAD on 6 November 2012:
@Scrutator, you are seriously a funny one if you think that political issues are separate like your me and you. Remember this when you think of writing another article-public problems are connected to the government of the day. Why? Because any government should be seen as interested in and actually addressing social issues. Otherwise, go and read about the functions of government as well as the nature and functions of politics politics.
Comment by Apole on 6 November 2012:
Ntho e ntenang ke hore emong le e mong a keke a bona phoso moetapeleng oa hae. Sic