48 the final example of Kenya, there was a rethinking of citizenship education where the
concept of citizenship was newly formulated, shifting from its Western influence to incorporate the political cultural setting of Kenya (Wainaina, Arnot, & Chege, 2011). The concept even changed their provision of formal education in secondary schools.
These examples from different countries indicate that there are initiatives that endeavour to address the gaps in understanding where voter education is oftentimes provided as civic education; and elections not linked to governance, following the transition to modern democracies. Some countries indicate that there are active civil societies endeavouring to educate their populace in context sensitive frameworks such as in Kenya, where citizenship education has shifted to fit their cultural context.
However, in SADC countries the media is mostly owned by government and the privately owned media lack funding or are poorly funded and thus less able to act as a check and balance on political elites and on abuses of power, or they favour a governing party (Hughes, 2006).
Returning to the context of Lesotho, much has happened since the erosion of traditional leadership via colonialism, military rule, and democratic governance, which has resulted in multiple challenges as reflected in Chapter One. Concepts of democracy, citizenship, human rights and the election of leaders are discourses that do not appear to be understood by many people in Lesotho, and prior to this study it was not known to what extent or in what way, because no detailed study appears to have been conducted.
49 and Legislature (Government of Lesotho, 1993, 2004). Civic education in Lesotho is provided by the IEC which was established by the constitution of Lesotho section 66 (as a second amended in 1997) and derives its powers and functions from the Constitution and the National Assembly Electoral Act (Government of Lesotho, 2011). Voter education was launched in 1997 by the IEC (IEC, 1998; Sekatle, 1999). During its kick-start, it used posters, pamphlets, public notices, public gatherings, local radio station announcements and
newspapers to disseminate information on elections. The printed materials were distributed to communities and displayed in the village shops, health centres and schools, and
published newspapers were distributed to public members during public gatherings.
The commission officers are appointed by the king acting on the advice of the state council.
According to the Government of Lesotho (1993) and National Assembly Electoral Act (Government of Lesotho, 2011), the IEC is a constitutionally independent, non-partisan Electoral Management Body that is autonomous. It is mandated to engender a capable and responsive electoral institution that delivers regular democratic elections and referenda that are timely, participatory, transparent, acceptable and accessible to Basotho. It aims to create an enabling environment to enhance the promotion of public awareness and
understanding of democratic processes, and to provide customer service, ensuring the development and nurturing of a talented, committed and empowered staff who always aim for management excellence, while remaining, through visionary leadership, accountable to the people of Lesotho (Government of Lesotho, 1993; National Assembly Electoral Act, 2011).
In its plans, the IEC extends its services towards all voters including the youth (potential and eligible). This has come about as a result of challenges that the IEC faced in different aspects of election administration such as credibility of voters roll/lists, nomination of candidates, non-acceptance of results due to lack of understanding on how vote counting is conducted and the wrong interpretation of the allocation of seats (probably due to the 1998 political unrest where youth were seen to be active in rioting and protesting that the claimed election results were fraudulent).
As already indicated in Chapter One, the IEC's (2006) Training Manual points out that civic education is a medium through which the social, political and economic culture of a certain
50 society is transmitted. Through civic education citizens are encouraged to participate in governance and issues directly affecting their lives. Therefore citizens have to be informed and be knowledgeable in order to exercise their rights and duties and participate
meaningfully to enhance democracy. According to the IEC (2012b), civic education is offered as electoral and voter education to eligible voters in respect of the general election
information that covers phases of registration, nomination and voting. It is provided by trained voter educators that have received a three day training workshop and are hired temporarily for the elections. The training is provided by Constituency Electoral Assistants, who are permanently employed IEC staff, to the temporarily hired voter educators who are expected to disseminate information to different communities at least three months before elections. The content is derived from the National Assembly Electoral Act (Government of Lesotho, 2011). It has the following topics: IEC structure and roles, election stakeholders and their roles, voter education, democracy and elections, and others (IEC, 2012a, 2012b;
National Assembly Electoral Act, 2011). This Act and other documents are discussed in detail in Chapter Seven.
In 2011, prior to local government elections, a memorandum of understanding was signed by the IEC and Lesotho Council of Non-Governmental Organizations (LCN) both represented by their Secretariat leaders, with the purpose of reversing voter apathy, enhancing
democracy and boosting voter registration (Zihlangu, 2011). The content that was agreed upon for dissemination of information included: introduction to the new boundaries of urban and municipal councils, explanation for the delay of local government elections from 2010 to 2011 and the importance of citizens casting their vote during elections. This shows that voter education is offered just before the elections for immediate use by the
electorates, and so it has a limited focus. Indeed this shows how weak civic education is in that it takes the form of voter education in Lesotho (see Chapter Seven), because it could be argued that issues concerning the new boundaries of urban and municipal councils could have been disseminated long before the councils were established and before the local government elections.
However, in Lesotho voter education is also offered by civil society groups like NGOs such as the Lesotho Council of Non-Governmental Organizations (LCN), the Transformation
Resource Centre (TRC), Development for Peace Education (DPE), the Christian Council of
51 Lesotho and the political parties to their members. Some participants of the study were drawn from these groups (see Chapter Four for sampling details). In Lesotho, voter education is mostly delivered during the time of elections, making it a once-off education for immediate use.
Kadima et al. (2006) suggest that voter education in Lesotho is the information provided by a political party in the run up to elections. Its aim is, typically, to address voters’ motivation and preparedness to participate fully in the elections, and entails more complex types of information about voting and the electoral process. To them, voter education is concerned with concepts such as the secrecy of the ballot, why each vote is important and its impact on public accountability, and how votes translate into seats. Such concepts involve
explanation, not just a statement of fact, and this type of information is often provided by election authorities and civil society organisations (CSO). In their study of political parties and democratisation in Lesotho, Matlosa and Sello (2006) interviewed the high ranking officials, including the elite political leaders and politicians. These authors argue that not only does sustainable democracy depend upon well-functioning and effective political parties, but also upon well informed and empowered citizenry in terms of public
participation and active involvement in governance issues. Political parties are made up of citizens who also form the party’s membership. Therefore this thesis also argues that political party leaders, too, need to be informed in and knowledgeable about the skills of how to deliberate and effectively participate in governance issues, a point about
democratisation that these authors seem to be silent about.
Voter and civic education can be badly abused in some instances. For example, political parties abuse chiefs to engage in party politics rather than using them for disseminating voter and civic education objectively, and as a result marginalized groups like women, disabled people and youth are neglected (Khembo, 2004). It is doubtful whether education provided only during election time is adequate for the political socialization and
conscientization of the masses, especially in enhancing their understanding of democracy and their citizenship rights and responsibilities. This study takes an in-depth approach to explore precisely what happens in the context of Lesotho regarding the understanding of these terms, particularly in the light of the above literature which emphasizes the benefits of quality teaching and content in civic education and its impact on democratic behaviour.
52 The 2014 political instability in Lesotho has led to the resolution to hold early elections following the 2012 ones (see Chapter One). This scenario has resulted from instability due to the rapid corruption among politicians and other decision makers, where manipulation was used by dishonest politicians in the past government to buy and gain votes from citizens.
There have been reports on massive government funds that have gone missing and have been misused, resulting in the reshuffling of ministers and people who hold key positions in government. In retaliation, the military, who sympathized with other officials who were involved in corruption, staged an attempted coup. This is discussed in detail in Chapter Eight. According to the Lesotho Times Newspaper, dated 9-15 September (Zihlangu, 2014), several attacks were made on the police by the military and that situation pushed Lesotho further into its vulnerable and unstable situation. In these instances, citizens are unable to oppose or confront the acts of injustice that are done by both the politicians and the military. These situations call for civic education that can raise awareness among the responsible officials and instigate in them the political will that will promote and advance peace and stability in the country. Opportunities that Basotho are currently likely to be exposed to, in terms of learning about concepts of democracy and citizenship, their rights and responsibilities, are discussed in the following section.