Huge blow for party agents

‘Mantṧali Phakoana

Efforts by at least eight Hamore Democratic Party (HDP) agents to get their allowances for the work they did during the 2017 general elections have been dealt a massive blow after the party was deregistered by the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) last week.

The aggrieved agents complain that they have tried to engage with the party’s executive committee over the past six years to get their dues but without success.

They told theReporter this week that they were yet to receive their M300 allowances each, and accuse party leader, Leqeka Ntjatsane, and his committee of ignoring their pleas.

The agents were deployed at Makeneng Tent and Khatibe Lesotho Evangelical Church (LEC) voting stations in Hololo constituency where they were tasked with ensuring that the election process was fair and free.

They said they fear that their chances of ever getting their payments were now bleak after the party was deregistered on Monday last week.

Hamore was one of the seven political parties deregistered by the electoral body for contravening Section 27 of the National Assembly Electoral Act, 2011.

The section states that the Commission may cancel a political party if it ceases to exist or no longer functions; if the party has dissolved or is intending to dissolve, or if it does not comply with section 24 (1) a to f) of the same Act.

It further shows that a party can be deregistered if it does not comply with its obligations in terms of the Act, after being warned by the IEC to do so.

The deregistration of the parties comes ahead of the local government elections scheduled for September 29 this year.

According to the Hamore Democratic Party agents, the deregistration of the party has dealt their fight for their allowances a huge blow.

Before then, they still harboured hopes of getting what was rightfully theirs.

“Now that the party is no longer registered with the IEC, our fear is that we will never be paid,” they said.

Some of the agents, Mpuweng Miya, Tṧepiso Moqekela, Ncheng Nkharabane and Ramakatsa Seketaba told this publication in an interview this week that they had not been paid despite numerous attempts to get answers from the party’s committee.

They claimed that, after hearing that party agents that had been stationed at other constituencies like Botha-Bothe had received their salaries, they confronted Ntjatsane. The leader told them that the party was still waiting for the IEC to give them money for election agents.

“The party’s executive has abandoned us. We committed ourselves to work for the party but they failed to play their role. It is now six years without paying us and all they have been claiming was that IEC had not given them money,” Moqekela said.

The agents said Ntjatsane had in the past admitted that he had paid others from his own pocket and that was all he could afford.

“We tried our best to get answers from the party leader, and also from Ntate Tsebo (Mpheakhang) who was a candidate contesting for elections under the Hamore banner in our constituency, but we never got help,” Miya chipped in.

Tsebo Mpheakhang, who was contesting under the party but left to join the Basotho National Party (BNP), claims that the Hamore leadership lacked transparency. 

Mpheakhang said he tried several times to ask the party executive to pay agents but he was also told that the IEC had not given them funds.

“It is worrying that the party opted not to pay these agents despite being provided with funds to do so by the commission.

“I could not wait and watch and be led by the kind of leadership that does not account for the funds used,” Mpheakhang added.

Responding to the grievances, Hamore Democratic Party leader Ntjatsane – who has since joined the Democratic Congress – accused the agents of being disloyal and not performing well during the 2017 elections.

He pointed out that not even a single person at the said sites had voted for his party, saying this was unusual.

“You scratch my back and I will scratch yours,” Ntjatsane quipped.

He further blamed the party agents for sending other people to collect salaries on their behalf during pay days.

This was a huge challenge they had encountered as a party, he noted, adding that they could not give money to anyone except those who had signed on the party agent forms.

“Since we had to reconcile the funds that the IEC had given us to pay party agents, we had to take the money back to the commission after they failed to show up on payday,” Ntjatsane said.

He however, indicated that he could not remember how much the party was given for its agents and how much of this was taken back to the IEC.

He added that before the elections, political parties had pledged to account for every single cent they use during the elections and as a result they had to abide by this.

Ntjatsane challenged party agents who did not receive their payments to take the matter up with the electoral commission, with proof that they had worked but did not receive their payments.

He also accused them of trying to tarnish his name, by only coming out now when the party has just been dissolved by the IEC.

For his part, former Hamore Democratic Party secretary general, Jonney Dlamini, said he could not remember how many agents were hired.

Dlamini has since joined the Movement for Economic Change (MEC) led by health minister Selibe Mochoboroane.

He noted that the Botha-Bothe community did not support the deregistered party.

“Our dream was to have our district (Botha-Bothe) represented in the national assembly or even providing Lesotho’s prime minister but our people have shown us they do not want that.

“They never supported Hamore Democratic Party until we decided to join parties that we believe they trusted,” he noted.

He added that the complaining agents did not show up during payday and were unreachable on their mobile phones, “so we did not have any other means to reach them.”

Ntjatsane said the decision to dissolve the party was made by the executive committee in 2022, after realising that they could not win even one seat in parliament since the 2012 elections.

The former party leader indicated that he had contested for elections under Hamore since 2012 but with no success.

He stated it was not easy to spend his own money on a party that lacked supporters, especially during elections.

“Being a leader of a political party is not an easy task, it is expensive. At some point you have to spend your own money for certain things to happen so if you keep on spending and not benefiting, it is bothering,” Ntjatsane said.

It is for this reason that the executive reached a decision to dissolve the party and join bigger parties recognised by voters.

Ntjatsane further explained that they had last year approached the IEC and asked to be removed from its list of registered parties but to their surprise, Hamore was still on the books in January this year.

IEC public relations manager, Tuoe Hantṧi this week failed to say whether the party had returned the funds it had not utilised to pay its election agents.

“I really don’t know what to say because the incident in question occurred six years ago. It’s been too long, said Hantṧi, not confirming or denying any allegations raised by Ntjatsane.

Hantṧi said he was not sure whether the IEC still had records of the payment of party agents from the 2017 elections.

He, however, called on unpaid party agents to bring their claims to the commission.