LESOTHO: Matekane gov’t purges illegal civil servants while scoring very low on his own 100 days targets

Staff Reporter

Maseru – Prime Minister Sam Matekane- led government is purging civil servants who have been illegally recruited.

Minister in Prime Minister’s Office Limpho Tau said more than 100 illegally recruited civil servants from the Ministry of Tourism have been identified.

And a staggering R30 million has been spent to pay salaries of these civil servants.

“We have written them letters stating that they are being kicked out of the civil service because they have been corruptly recruited,” Tau said .

He said this corruption has been happening since 2022 under the leadership of then Prime Minister Dr Moeketsi Majoro.

The new government has also discovered that the ministry pays students who are still pursuing their studies at schools.

And the salaries of those students are deposited into different bank accounts yet they pay the same people.

“We are yet to inform the relevant authorities to pursue their investigations,” Tau said, adding that those involved in these malpractices have account for their acts.

He maintained that the civil servants whose recruitment has been flawed have to be kicked out of the civil service.

He said there is no witch hunt for the process.

He said his government is going to do the same with other ministries.

Tau said they issued a statement when they became government the recruitment of staff be suspended.

But some top government officials decided to recruit new staff.

Matekane’s tenure as a Prime Minister purely based on his own 20 points is painting a very blurry picture for Basotho.

During his inauguration on the 28 October 2022, he set himself 20 points target ranging from 10 days, 15 days, 30 days, 60, and 100 days.

Eleven out of twenty points fall under 60 days and this is how he scored:

Achieved partially one of two in the ten days targets;
Achieved one out of the three in the fifteen days targets;
Achieved partially one of the five targets in the thirty days targets;
Achieved particularly one of one target in the sixty days target.

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