It ends up being messy at times, but coalition politics might be the ABC of the 21st century, especially in Africa, says Victor Kgomoeswana
Once again, the front runner of this week's elections in Lesotho – former prime minister Tom Thabane – did not garner enough votes for his All Basotho Convention (ABC) to rule by itself.
Out of 120 seats, 48 do not give the ABC the parliamentary majority, after Thabane’s rival – former prime minister Pakalitha Mosisili and his Democratic Congress (DC) – managed only 30.
As we witnessed in the municipal elections in South Africa in August last year, failure to secure an outright majority detonates a soap opera of bargaining and quasi floor-crossing as adversaries learn to cosy up to the very people they would have been condemning a few hours before the results were announced.
Mosisili, 72, is himself proof of what coalition politics can do, since taking over power in March 2015.
He then lost a motion of no confidence in March; and will have to use the experience he amassed since joining politics in 1993 to influence the affairs of the Mountain Kingdom.
The outcome of the results is possibly a reminder that voters the world over are internalising the wisdom of the saying "power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely".
It has happened in many countries, from Ghana to Zambia and the UK that no single party commands the trust of the majority of the electorate to win.
Often, the stalemate resulting from an election without an outright winner forces two opposing parties to collaborate, team up or coalesce.
In South Africa, the metropolitan councils of Johannesburg, Tshwane and Nelson Mandela Bay are proof that it is a lot easier for politicians to heckle and boo one another than collaborate.
And yet, considering how dynamic the world has become, it is a safer place to be when no one party has all the power.
Ruling parties with an overwhelming majority are prone to arrogance. In their complacency, these parties then give in to corruption.
Recently, the supporters of Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza were reportedly chanting that the very man who violently forced his reign on his people for the third term would rule until Jesus Christ returns.
Believe it or not, sometimes I imagine that the politically powerful have heaven on speed dial. How else do so many African leaders predict His second coming with such aplomb?
If politicians and their private sector co-rulers cannot be trusted to exercise their power with humility and propriety, then maybe none of them should have any majority control.
There is a reason stock markets and company legislation the world over prioritise the protection of minorities.
This is just as compelling a reason why anti-trust legislation is the only safeguard against the greed of multinational corporations.
Lesotho is a crucial economy to the Southern African Development Community.
Instability in this small landlocked country destabilises its neighbours, mainly South Africa.
It renders the fiscal alignment, which is central to regional economic integration, unworkable.
Considering how many Basotho work in South Africa, it is not acceptable that this enclave should be allowed to remain politically unstable.
Then there is the textiles industry, but most of all the Lesotho Highlands Water Project is not a petty enterprise.
The viability of the latter, in the world where we are logically told that the next war will be over water – not oil – should not be subjected to the vagaries of political instability and coup attempts in a nation of less than two million people.
It is up to the Basotho to decide who is fit to rule their country. And time will tell if 78-year-old Thabane is the man for the job, since he has been in and out of politics since 1986.
Besides, coalitions have been at the heart of the instability of Lesotho over the past decade or so.
Let Thabane’s ABC (and the world) learn to govern through co-operation instead of dominance; it might be the best thing ever – if the coalition holds, this time around.
* Kgomoeswana is the author of Africa is Open for Business. He is also a media commentator and public speaker on African business affairs, and a weekly columnist for African Independent – Twitter Handle: @VictorAfrica
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.