Prime Minister Launches Local Government Training Manual

Government has identified a number of public services that will be administered and run at the local government level, providing the public officials and infrastructure for their successful operation, the Prime Minister, Mr. Pakalitha Mosisili, has announced. 

This will be followed by an orderly devolution to local government councils, of services and power to allow them to control the administration of affairs they should be running for themselves. 

In many instances, Local Government has been found to be the answer to a lax, inefficient public service, fraud, unemployment and a host of other ills, the Prime Minister said at the launching and adoption of a Local Government training manual on September 16.  

The document has been adopted as an official policy document to help guide and systematise workshops aimed at teaching Basotho about local governance. The training manual will assist Basotho in their ability to participate in affairs that affect them at the local level, prioritising local needs according to their importance and magnitude. 

Basotho have not, in all the 38 years of their country’s independence, been able to have the opportunity to elect in a free and transparent manner, local government councils made up of members of their own choice as voters. 

It has however been the intention of government, since the return to democracy in 1993, to reverse this state of affairs and reintroduce local government, which had been place pre-independence in the form of the district councils. 

 As part of initial preparations, the Ministry of Local Government was formed in 1994 which, after consulting with the people, released a White Paper on Local Government. The Local Government Act of 1997 and the Local Government Elections Act of 1998were passed through Parliament, the latter giving the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) powers to run the local government elections. 

Government had intended for these elections to be held at the same time as the general elections of 1998, however it became apparent that the logistics would not be easy for the IEC.  The unsavoury occurrences post the 1998 elections further put paid to any attempts to continue the process. The time was now right, the Prime Minister said. 

Although local government should not be taken as the panacea of all social ills, the direct participation of the nation in the solution of problems it faces ensures drastic change in a short time.

17 September 2004