When Prime Minister Ntsokoane Samuel Matekane took office in late 2022, he rode a wave of hope and public optimism. A successful businessman turned statesman, he was seen as the antidote to decades of political instability, fractured leadership, and bureaucratic incompetence. His promise to run the government like a business resonated with a nation weary of political drama and yearning for results. For the first time in years, Basotho believed they had chosen a man who could restore order, discipline, and delivery to the business of governance.
But nearly three years in, the glow is dimming.
Instead of the streamlined, efficient administration we were promised, what we see increasingly resembles a disjointed, fragmented state, where ministries function like silos, state-owned enterprises chase their own ambitions, and the Prime Minister himself appears removed from the daily operations of his own government. It feels, at times, as if several separate governments are trying to govern the same country, each unaware of or indifferent to the actions of the others.
Nowhere is this dysfunction more visible than in the confusion surrounding Lesotho’s national brand. Last year, the Lesotho National Development Corporation (LNDC), a key state-owned enterprise responsible for economic promotion, launched the Lesotho Nation Brand in a grand ceremony attended by His Majesty King Letsie III and Prime Minister Matekane himself.
At the heart of this initiative was a powerful, aspirational campaign slogan: #ExperienceElevation. It was a fitting message for a country quite literally perched in the mountains, and metaphorically striving to rise above its limitations.
The Nation Brand launch was not a trivial PR stunt. It was a declaration of how Lesotho intended to present itself to the world, a unified identity, a compelling narrative to attract investors, tourists, and trade. It was meant to create alignment among all stakeholders, both public and private, who market and represent the country.
But less than a year later, the very agencies tasked with promoting Lesotho abroad are using entirely different messaging. The Lesotho Tourism Development Corporation (LTDC), which arguably should have been the lead partner in this campaign, continues to operate on a different wavelength altogether. Visit LTDC’s official X (formerly Twitter) page and you will find hashtags like #VisitLesotho, #LoveLesotho, and #TasteLesotho, but rarely, if ever, #ExperienceElevation.
When continentally renowned content creator Wode Maya visited the country recently, an opportunity ripe for brand amplification, his promotional content made no mention of the Nation Brand. The messaging was scattered. The branding was inconsistent. The opportunity was lost.
Even when LTDC does use the official campaign slogan, as it did on May 21 when it posted snow-covered scenes from Semonkong and Oxbow, the use is sporadic, inconsistent, and clearly not guided by any overarching strategy. Meanwhile, the official Nation Brand account, set up with much fanfare, posts irregularly and seems out of sync with LTDC. Instead of synergy, there is fragmentation.
If LNDC, LTDC, and the Nation Brand team are not coordinating on something as basic and vital as national messaging, what does that say about their coordination on investments, product development, tourism policy, or international partnerships? If the agencies that market Lesotho do not speak the same language, how can we expect the world to listen?
This communications disaster is symptomatic of a broader disease: a government without cohesion, led by a Prime Minister who seems either unaware or uninterested in bringing his team together. Ministries operate in silos. State-owned entities pursue disconnected goals. Cabinet ministers often appear not to be reading from the same playbook, if there even is one.
What’s most troubling is that even at the top, there is an unsettling detachment. The Prime Minister, by all appearances, picks a few projects, like the Makoanyane Square renovation, and focuses his energy there. To be clear, the Makoanyane project is beautiful and symbolic, and the Prime Minister’s involvement has given it momentum. But leadership is not about cherry-picking pet projects while the rest of the government drifts. Being Prime Minister is not about strolling around a new traffic circle near Maseru Mall while ministries and agencies burn in dysfunction.
Nowhere is this disconnect more glaring than in the unresolved tensions within the Ministry of Forestry and Environment. In July 2024, Minister Letsema Adontši, appointed in November 2023, formally wrote to the Prime Minister requesting the removal of his Principal Secretary (PS) due to an irreparably broken working relationship. A full year later, July 2025, that request has yet to receive even a face-to-face response. The Minister and the PS remain trapped in a toxic relationship. And the Prime Minister? He is missing in action.
If a minister cannot get a hearing from the Prime Minister about a fundamental issue in his ministry for an entire year, what does that say about the executive’s accessibility, responsiveness, and command? Is the Prime Minister aware? Is he waiting for things to sort themselves out? Or does he simply not care?
Those who know Prime Minister Matekane personally often describe him as a nice, humble, and grounded individual. He is said to be cool-headed, approachable, and sincere, exactly the kind of character you hope to find in a fellow human being. And that, in itself, is a virtue. In a world where power often corrupts and arrogance becomes a hallmark of high office, Matekane’s humility is refreshing.
But here’s the uncomfortable truth: being a good person with good intentions is not enough, especially when you are the Prime Minister of a country. Governing is not just about being liked. It’s about making hard decisions, confronting uncomfortable realities, and sometimes even disappointing those closest to you in the interest of the greater good. It requires a kind of strategic ruthlessness, the ability to say no, to fire underperformers, to discipline wayward ministers, and to set a clear tone from the top.
Unfortunately, bad actors within government don’t fear good intentions. They exploit them. They interpret kindness as weakness, silence as permission, and absence as opportunity. And judging from the dysfunction already visible in several ministries and agencies, it is increasingly clear that some within Matekane’s administration are not only failing to match his vision, they are taking advantage of his passivity. When a Prime Minister is too trusting, too patient, too detached, those around him are not inspired to rise to the occasion, they are emboldened to pursue their own agendas.
The stakes are too high for Lesotho to be run by people who are shielded from accountability because they happen to orbit a good man. A kind and honest Prime Minister surrounded by cunning, disloyal or self-serving lieutenants is no longer an asset to the nation, it becomes a recipe for betrayal and decay. History has taught us this time and again.
Matekane must understand that leadership is not just about being admirable. It is about being effective. He cannot merely hope that everyone will do their job just because he is polite and sincere. He must ensure they do it. And when they don’t, he must act, not later, not quietly, but firmly and immediately.
Because leadership is not about how nice you are in a meeting, but how well your decisions ripple through the system. Right now, the ripples are chaotic. And the longer he waits to assert himself, the harder it will be to regain control.
When I was still new in the newsroom back in 2014, covering the National Assembly, I remember a moment that now feels eerily prophetic. The then Democratic Congress (DC) Member of Parliament (MP), Teboho Lehloenya, criticised Prime Minister Thomas Thabane’s government, saying it was on autopilot. I didn’t fully grasp the meaning then, but I do now. Lehloenya warned that an airplane left on autopilot for too long, without an active pilot, eventually runs out of fuel and crashes. And crash Thabane’s government did, into disarray and scandal.
I say this not because I wish the same fate upon Matekane’s administration, but because I desperately hope for the opposite. I want him to succeed, because if he fails, the country fails. But he must not mistake silence for stability, or delegation for detachment. A government cannot run on autopilot. It cannot function with disconnected ministries, uncoordinated agencies, and unresolved internal conflicts. It cannot survive if the Prime Minister is missing from the cockpit.
We elected a pilot. A man who promised to fly us through storms with businesslike precision. A man who said he would bring order to the chaos. We did not elect a ceremonial figurehead. We elected a leader. And we deserve to see one.
Summary
- It feels, at times, as if several separate governments are trying to govern the same country, each unaware of or indifferent to the actions of the others.
- Last year, the Lesotho National Development Corporation (LNDC), a key state-owned enterprise responsible for economic promotion, launched the Lesotho Nation Brand in a grand ceremony attended by His Majesty King Letsie III and Prime Minister Matekane himself.
- It was a declaration of how Lesotho intended to present itself to the world, a unified identity, a compelling narrative to attract investors, tourists, and trade.
Lesotho activist and journalist who is the Chairperson of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Lesotho. He is an International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) alumnus.
Boloetse is driven by the need to protect and promote the rights of others, especially the marginalized segment of society. He rose to prominence as an activist in 2018 when he wrote to Lesotho communications Authority (LCA) asking it to order Econet Telecom Lesotho (ETL) and Vodacom Lesotho (VCL) to stop charging expensive out-of-bundle rates for data when customers’ data bundles get depleted.
