Tšeliso Moroke
Why are newly elected governments prevented from introducing systems that reflect their manifesto, governing philosophy, and leadership style?
This is not a theoretical question. It is the central fault line of Lesotho’s governance crisis.
We hear that political institutions ensure stability, continuity, and good governance, that they curb abuse of power, protect democracy, and enable orderly government. Yet election after election, the result is the same: stalled reforms, recycled elites, policy paralysis, and a country lurching from crisis to crisis.
The uncomfortable truth: political institutions are not neutral referees but active players. They determine who governs, how power is exercised, which decisions are possible, and which reforms die at birth. These institutions have become the decisive factor in whether a government succeeds or fails.
Our constitutional and political framework rigidly defines who has authority, who controls resources, and who can block change. In theory, this is meant to prevent tyranny. In practice, it has created a system in which elected leaders bear responsibility without real power, while unelected or entrenched actors wield power without accountability.
This is where our national problem begins.
Systems do not exist in abstraction. They are designed, interpreted, and enforced by people. Over time, those people form networks, political, bureaucratic, and economic, that benefit from the status quo. These networks learn how to survive leadership changes. They outlast prime ministers. They outlive political parties. They wait out reformers.
That is why even leaders who come into office with good intentions inevitably stumble.
When the current Prime Minister was still Prime Minister-elect, he was asked how he intended to govern. His answer was blunt: “I am going to run it like a business.”
That statement was not careless but revealing. It showed a leader who, even before taking office, knew the system couldn’t deliver different results. It reflected an understanding that our governance system lacks efficiency, accountability, performance measurement, and cost discipline.
But the system does not reward such thinking.
Once in office, the Prime Minister faced a familiar reality: the system resists reform. Campaign promises collide with entrenched procedures. Party manifestos lose power to inherited rules. Even modest changes face institutional pushback.
The system dictates what is “possible,” long before Parliament debates or the Cabinet decides.
How, then, do we judge leadership fairly? Can we assess a Prime Minister solely on campaign promises when the system coerces him into abandoning them—when he must govern through structures designed by previous orders, and deviation from tradition is framed as recklessness rather than reform?
The system did not allow him or his Cabinet to implement the reforms envisioned. Attempts to rationalise resources, change administrative culture, or disrupt privileges met resistance. Concessions were achieved only where they did not threaten entrenched interests.
Eventually, he did what the system expects of every newcomer: learn the old rules to survive. And survival, in Lesotho’s politics, often requires recycling old politicians. The very individuals voters hoped to move beyond return as “advisers,” “experienced hands,” or coalition necessities. They teach the ropes. They know the loopholes. They understand where power truly lies.
The result is tragically predictable.
The old guard—beneficiaries of a broken system—are back in charge. Their politics is driven not by development or renewal, but by positioning, access, and protection. They are managers of decline, thriving not through vision but through adaptability to dysfunction.
This is not an accident. The system rewards those who exploit it and punishes those who challenge it.
Yet our Constitution tells another story. It vests sovereignty in the people and establishes the government to serve the public interest. It mandates accountability and responsiveness. Parliament should oversee. The Executive should govern within the law. Institutions are meant to enable—not obstruct—democracy.
Somewhere between constitutional principle and political practice, we lost the plot.
To make this administration meaningful, we must act decisively. Reclaim the original mandate by demanding both government accountability and structural change. Insist on real reform—rooted in transparency, integrity, and measurable progress—not just symbolic gestures.
This requires two difficult but necessary commitments.
First, harness the Prime Minister’s business acumen. Running government “like a business” means discipline, performance management, value for money, and consequences for failure—not privatising the state or ignoring social obligations.
Second, confront the reality that the system is captured. Reform cannot depend solely on personalities. Institutions must be recalibrated so innovation is possible without political suicide, and rules must incentivise performance rather than paralysis.
This is not what Basotho voted for: a new administration trapped in old habits, reform slowed to a crawl, and hope diluted by “this is how things are done.”
We must break the cycle. Demand reform and hold leaders accountable, so Lesotho can finally move forward.
If we continue to confuse institutional rigidity with stability, we will keep changing leaders without changing outcomes. The country will continue to move—but only in circles.
Summary
- In practice, it has created a system in which elected leaders bear responsibility without real power, while unelected or entrenched actors wield power without accountability.
- Can we assess a Prime Minister solely on campaign promises when the system coerces him into abandoning them—when he must govern through structures designed by previous orders, and deviation from tradition is framed as recklessness rather than reform.
- It vests sovereignty in the people and establishes the government to serve the public interest.
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