By ‘Majirata Latela
Local business mogul Sam Matekane this week launched a new political party – the Revolution for Prosperity – which he says is determined to come up with strategies to eradicate poverty.
Matekane said one of the strategies that he is going to put in place if elected as Lesotho’s next Prime Minister is to make sure that Basotho youth are empowered to start their own businesses. He says when more youth start their own businesses, they will be able to give jobs to other youth instead of expecting to get jobs from government.
“Unemployment is a huge challenge in Lesotho and one thing that is important is to remove all the bottlenecks to doing business, so that all people who are willing to be in business can do so. We are going to sit down with the youth to find out what their challenges are in starting their own businesses.
“The country is faced with many challenges and the Covid-19 pandemic has compounded the challenges that the country was already grappling with. We as business people are willing to sit down will all entrepreneurs, small and medium businesses to see how best we can make sure that our businesses are strong enough to survive the pandemic,” Matekane said.
He added that another issue that his government will look into is crime. He believes that some people get involved in crime because they are not busy making a living legally. He said a person who has a job or a business has their mind occupied on what they are doing and will not have time to think of killings and other kinds of crimes.
Matekane, who recently received a Forbes Best Africa – Leading Entrepreneur of the year award, says his government will fight corruption with without fear or favour. He said if they find a certain official misusing public funds and practising corruption his government will make sure that they are made an example of.
He asked people to give them a chance to be in government. He said he believes he has made the right choice by forming a new party because he has all his life tried all he could to make sure that Lesotho’s economy grows, but all his hard work has been to no avail.
Matekane told the media after winning Forbes award last year that it was a pleasure for him to have been chosen to represent Lesotho and Basotho on the continental and global stages by the Foreign Investment Network (FIN) in partnership with Forbes.
He said he could not have achieved that without the support of Basotho over the years, adding that Basotho should embrace the award as ‘an ignition that will propel them to achieve more’.
