The past few weeks have exposed a disturbing trend in Lesotho’s public service: the meddling of politicians in the appointment of civil servants.
This problem starts right at the top, with the position of government secretary and principal secretaries. It goes down to junior officers and two ministries in, particular have been at the centre of a rather disappointingly public spat between some political parties – the ministry of home affairs and the ministry of gender, youth, sports and recreation.
It is an undeniable fact that the workforce of these ministries is dominated by cadres of a certain political party. Denying it would be folly. There is hard evidence, for example that the former minister of the latter ministry disregarded all prescribed civil service recruitment regulations when she was deployed to this ministry in 2018. She unilaterally hired members of her own party despite the ministry already being in the process of identify potential employees through legally prescribed procedures.
Now, the beneficiaries of this practice are crying wolf when they are on the receiving end of the purging by new masters.
This politicisation of the civil service must stop. The practice has an ambivalent reputation among public administration experts. While considered an effective instrument to safeguard political control over ministerial bureaucracy, partisanship of senior civil servants is likewise associated with patronage and is deemed detrimental to professionalism and meritocracy.
Civil servants are meant to be permanent functionaries within the public sector, hence their political neutrality is an important value, and source of legitimacy, in most democratic systems.
‘Neutral competence’ is a standard criterion for evaluating the quality of administrative systems.
