Parliament recommends 3 PSs for Lephema’s ministry

… Finds there was no budget for Operation Fiela and the upgrading of Makoanyane Square

Ministry of Local Government, Chieftainship, Home Affairs and Police is too massive and dysfunctional to be run by one person, a hard-hitting parliamentary committee report has concluded.

The report warned that unchecked problems are fueling crime, delaying basic citizen services, and risking public financial mismanagement.

The Portfolio Committee on Economic and Development Cluster’s Mid-Term Budget Review report for the 2025/2026 financial year exposes a ministry juggling everything from registering citizens and livestock, issuing passports and IDs, policing the country, managing borders, overseeing chiefs, handling land and housing, to running local councils, all under a single Chief Accounting Officer.

The committee noted: “The Ministry is too huge to be led by one Chief Accounting Officer.” It demands that each department get its own dedicated Chief Accounting Officer to enforce real accountability.

The criticism comes amid mounting failures. Passport and identity document issuance remains plagued by delays, leaving thousands of Basotho unable to access jobs, travel, or basic rights, even as the ministry scrambles with extended hours and weekend openings in a desperate bid to catch up.

Worse still, illegal border crossings into South Africa have surged, directly linked by the committee to a sharp rise in transnational organised crime and rampant stock theft.

Porous borders allow livestock, vehicles, firearms, and contraband to flow unchecked, devastating rural livelihoods and feeding cross-border criminal networks that both Lesotho and South African authorities have repeatedly failed to dismantle despite years of talks.

The committee also noted that revenue collection was crippled because many councils still lack the necessary bylaws to gather even basic fees, from parking and building permits to land registrations.

The ministry has resorted to unauthorised budget shifts (virements) to fund unbudgeted items like “operation fiela” and refurbishing Makoanyane Square, moves the committee warns could breach the Public Financial Management Act and invite further fiscal chaos.

On the spending side, the ministry controls massive resources. A recurrent budget of nearly M1.9 billion, with 87 percent poured into urban roads, waste management, police stations, and road maintenance, and a capital injection of over M447 million for projects like bus terminals, rural roads, fire stations, and council funds.

However, the committee found, core delivery falters, including long-delayed rehabilitation of the main dump site, raising serious environmental and health alarms.

The committee recommended splitting of leadership for accountability, fast-tracking bylaws for revenue, halting risky virements, speeding up document issuance, and cracking down hard on illegal crossings before crime spirals further out of control.

“It is recommended that every department be afforded a Chief Accounting Officer,” the report read.

Without immediate reform, the report implied, this overstretched ministry risks becoming a national liability rather than a guardian of law, order, and citizen services.

Staff Reporter

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