Activities
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In August Lesotho democracy program held public debates at Khokhotsane Khanyane in the Hlotse Constituency. The objective of these debates was to improve a record of parliamentary engagement with Basotho including constituency feedback on parliament and constituency clinics.

Constituents were concerned about high crime rate, unlawfulness within the constituency, need for security and protection for public, prevention of soil erosion which affects cemeteries and the high unemployment rate, road constructions and repair needs for potable water.

The major concern was lack of service delivery in public ministries is which included dilatory issuance of passport and long queues in hospitals and ill-treatment of patients.
Most constituents were again concerned of criminal offences in the area therefore they invited security agents to facilitate and intensify community policing.
The Hlotse Member of Parliament reported back on parliamentary activities including Bills and Acts passed. Regarding security and unlawfulness in the area a police officer from the Hlotse district facilitated an establishment of a community policing committee which would contribute towards the protection of the villagers. This strategy was made in order to advocate for peace and prosperity.

Because LDP enhances public policy engagement and promotes the presence of public information in Parliament, it emphasised that constituents should participate in law making processes to avoid policies and laws being imposing on them without their involvement. MPs and councillors should be present when laws are debated for exposure, knowledge and application. Political affiliations which are rampant within constituencies were discouraged as an MP should act in the interest of all constituents not just his political party supporters. Constituents are still discriminated against in some government ministries because they are not ruling party supporters; constituents are compelled to produce their party cards for services and employment. The Constituency office should also be utilised by all. That would result in speedy service delivery, responsiveness, transparency and effectiveness and efficiency for development for all.

A public Hearing was held at Ha-Ntsutsu in the same constituency. The purpose was to continue to educate constituents about parliament, its roles and MP’s roles and promotion of public participation. Issues discussed involved the work of the parliament its role and MPs’ roles. The MP reported back to the constituents about parliamentary activities and government policies. Most concerns raised by this village were similar to those of Ha Khokhotsane namely: passport issuance is slow, poor service delivery in hospitals and most government ministries; lack of doctors and nurses and shortages of medication in clinics and hospitals. Other concerns included road construction and maintenance, electricity installation, need for potable water and land distribution. Constituents were enraged as the village is neglected and abandoned by government; they have lost faith in their government as such. There have not been any developments, poverty is rife, no implementation and follow ups on their concerns and cross border stock theft and criminal offences are escalating because the village is situated near RSA and Lesotho. Public is in dire need of protection from security forces.

LDP is currently encouraging people to demand accountability from their parliamentarians and councils that is leaders at all levels and making informed decisions in choosing their representatives though the process is slow and it is normally during election periods that constituents feel more empowered to make such demands. LDP aims at giving constituents the opportunity to meet their MPs to discuss specific development issues that affect them as a way of social accountability. Equally importantly, input and feedback from civil society on policy and legislative implementation will strengthen channels of communication and enhance the quality of policy design. LDP will bring to light the demand side of good governance based on active involvement of citizens in exacting accountability from their elected representatives and leaders, and as well enable MPs to sensitize their constituents on proceedings in parliament in form of constituency clinics/surgeries and constituency feedback.

Lesotho Democracy Project met with the Lesotho Congress of Democracy (LCD) general secretary with the aim of introducing LDP activities, forging relationships and building rapport with the LCD.

The General Secretary acknowledged the work of NGOs such as TRC more especially on development related issues including the HIV and AIDS. However, he pointed out that there are elements within the civil society organisations which seem to always oppose the government. He showed that this makes the government to become sceptical to work with NGOs more especially when NGOs such as TRC want to work with political party structures through programmes like the LDP.

The General Secretary however promised that he would take the matter before the LCD party structures, party caucus, Parliament and other relevant and strategic figures within the party.

Workshop for Political Parties:
The workshop for the political parties was conceived and organised against the backdrop that parties fail to uphold the pillars of good governance and poor performance/practise of inter and intra democracy within parties. As a result parties are experiencing a lot of party splits, factionalism and protracted internal party conflicts.

Therefore, the main purpose of this workshop was to assist political parties to democratise their political structures by upholding the democracy pillars (regular elections, participation, dialogue, consensus and so on) and furthermore to assist them to manage conflicts effectively without necessarily resorting to the courts of law, party splits and factionalism.

In attempting to address some of the challenges associated with inter and intra political parties’ democracy, the LDP had invited three experts to share some invaluable experiences with the party delegates at the workshop. Mr. Tim Hughes from SAIIA presented a paper on Intra- and Inter- party democracy. Tim shared with the participants the broader issues pertaining to some of the following:

• the role played by political parties in democracy;
• the principles of multi-party democracy;
• the environment of political parties;
• the challenges of political parties;
• the challenge of recruiting members to parties;
• the challenge of party funding;
• the challenge of internal democracy;
• the challenge of gender;
• the challenge of internal conflicts and rivalry;
• the challenge of leadership;
• the challenges of greed, corruption, power and contenting values of visions;
• Political parties’ relevance in a globalizing world.

Mr. Caleb Sello made a presentation on Intra-and Inter-political parties’ democracy making specific reference to political parties in Lesotho. His presentation was based on EISA Research Report No. 23 “Political Parties and Democratization in Lesotho” by Khabele Matlosa and Caleb Sello, published in 2005. Caleb also made a presentation of the same subject matters already alluded by Tim and he managed to contextualize them in Lesotho political party context. There was a good correlation between what was presented by Tim and Caleb and as a result participants were able to relate democracy frameworks within which political parties across the globe are expected to be working and what was happening within their own political party structures.

Honorable Sam Mazosiwe from the Eastern Cape Legislature brought with him live experiences of the ANC internal democratization processes. He mentioned that ANC like any other political party has internal political conflicts. However, what was important was how those conflicts were effectively handled. He said that the ANC has internal mechanism of openly and objectively debating issues.

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