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The Transformation Resource Centre (TRC), through its Lesotho Democracy Programme (LDP), held a two days workshop for Civil Society Organisations (CSO's) with the intention to map ways in which Civil Society Organisations can meaningfully engage in participatory parliamentary processes in Lesotho. The workshop was held at the Lesotho National Convention Centre on the 28th -29th June 2007.
The workshop was officially opened by TRC director, Miss Matseliso Ntsoelikane. In her welcome remarks, Miss Ntsoelikane pointed out that Civil Society Organisations should play a leading role as drivers to making a positive change and ensuring that the parliament is opened and closer to the people.
The SAIIA Director of Studies, Mrs. Neuma Grobbelaar, stated in her introductory remarks that amongst the challenges that CSO's should deal with in order to strengthen Lesotho Democracy, there is that of little or non contact with parliament, poor or non functional parliamentary committees, lack of knowledge by CSO's on their constitutional rights. She ended her speech by appealing to members of various CSO's who had attended the workshop that she hoped, the workshop, is going to be of great importance in charting a way for CSO's and parliament engagement.
In his presentation Honuorable Lekhetho Rakuoane, the Member of Lesotho Parliament, stated that the expectation, after establishment of Parliamentary Reforms Committee, was to have improved and functioning parliament committees, openness of parliament to the people, good relations between MP's and the electorate, autonomous parliamentary service commission and new revised standing orders.
When responding to some of the questions that were asked Hon. Rakuoane said the Parliament of Lesotho needs to be capacitated with resources and skills, he went on to say each committee needs to be furnished with professional person to assist it while caring out its daily duties.
Mr. Mokhele who is the Assistant Hansard Editor made a presentation on the current operation of constituency offices and how they should operate. In his presentation Mr. Mokhele pointed that the Government does not have offices for Constituency secretaries but they rent a house in each constituency where the constituency secretaries use as their offices. He went on to say Constituency secretaries are political appointees, no qualifications are needed to get their positions, they report to their Members of Parliament(MP's), and MP's can take them out of office if they are no longer satisfied with their services. According to Mr. Mokhele the main duty of Constituency Secretaries is to take reports from the public to the MP and vice-versa.
Attendants of the workshop seemed to be concerned that Constituency Secretaries, being political appointees and directly under control of constituency MPs, might be biased and serve the interests of their political party followers and neglect the interest of other people in constituencies. It was suggested that constituency Secretaries should be elected by the people who live within the constituency as opposed to being appointed by MPs.
Mr. Tim Hughs from South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA) made a presentation on Parliamentary-Civil Society Engagement citing experiences from some SADC countries. He cited an example of Malawi where Civil Society Organisations stopped a mining contract, that was not known to the people, that was about to be completed. In this case, natural resource of the country was about to be extracted yet nobody knew how the contract was going to benefit the country and its people. This example shows how effective and influential Civil Society Organisations can be.
Mr. Stefan Gilbert from IDASA made a presentation on Advocacy Strategies. This was welcomed by attendants of the workshop because it will assist them to follow all necessary procedures while advocating their issues to parliament. It also informed them about various channels that they can be used to advocate their issues.
Mr. Lira Theko from Transformation Resource Centre made a presentation on the challenges towards a participatory Parliament. In his presentation Mr. Theko pointed out that public participation in Parliament has been very low or non-existent and he said this is due to lack of information and knowledge to the people that they are expected to contribute in daily functioning of Parliament. He went on to say people take Parliament to be a place for elected representatives only. He urged the people to participate in parliamentary business by contacting their MP's, attending Parliament Portfolio Committee meetings, submitting petitions to relevant parliament committees, joining political parties and in many other ways.
The workshop was closed after attendants had formulated what is called CSO Advocacy Strategy for increased Participation in Parliament Process with more emphasis on establishment of Public Participatory Offices to enable the people to engage with parliament.
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The Transformation Resource Centre (TRC), through its Lesotho Democracy Programme (LDP), in collaboration with the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA) and the Institute of Democracy in Southern Africa (IDASA) held a two day workshop for Media Houses, Journalists, and Communication Officers of various government ministries and private sectors. The workshop was held on the 6th to the 7th September 2007 at the Transformation Resource Centre conference hall.
The workshop was meant to create a forum for the gathering, exchange and dissemination of information that could help to strengthen media and parliament relations. The emphasis was on how best media can cover and publicise parliamentary activities. The expectation after the workshop is that the media in Lesotho would have been furnished with necessary skills that could help them to cover and publicise parliament issues hence bringing parliament closer to the people which is a major mandate of LDP.
A number of lessons were learned from the workshop firstly participants at the workshop learned that there is no defamation legislation in Lesotho, and because of this, media is unable to act as the watch dog of society nor engage in investigative journalism because the courts of law interpret defamation principles from the common law point of view, hence a number of private media houses have been charged lots of money after being sued for defamation.
Further it was learned that there is no Media Policy in Lesotho, according to the information provided by one of the presenters, an initiative was taken, in collaboration with government and independent media houses to draft a media policy but this was to no avail since the government does not adopt the policy.
Attendants of the workshop also learned a number of important issues related to the purpose, power and influence as well as the social responsibility of media. The workshop revealed to many Journalists, Reporters and communications officers who had attended the workshop that the work of media is to stimulate public discussion, facilitate connections between people and create a sense of possibility. The presentation went on to make it clear that a powerful media is that which provides information that engages government and citizens in
healthy debate and that which is equally accountable to both politicians and citizens. Lastly, media should see citizens as co-creators of communities and problem solvers alongside government as this will help them to change the way they pitch and approach stories.
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