Democratic Reversals: Examining the Role of the Armed Forces and Southern African Development Community in Lesotho
- November 27, 2019
- Posted by: RSIS
- Categories: IJRISS, Social Science
International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume III, Issue XI, November 2019 | ISSN 2454–6186
Moeketsi Kali
Pan African University, Yaoundé, Cameroon
Abstract: – This paper examines the impediments to democratic consolidation and the factors amounting to democratic reversals in Lesotho, especially those which implicate the armed forces. The paper also explores the efforts made by the South African Development Community (SADC) in restoring peace and safeguarding the democratic gains in the country. Drawing from the literature, the paper contends that the government of Lesotho has a tendency of using the state forces to achieve personal gains and by so doing sabotage the national interests. This problem is aggravated by the SADC whose frivolous envoys usually take its mandate for granted. Such tendencies reverse the democratic gains the country has accumulated over the decades. Notwithstanding, the paper posits that the challenges Lesotho is undergoing are but hiccups and are by no means necessarily pointing to democratic erosion and these problems could be addressed by entrusting the army to the King, depoliticising and restructuring the army and capacitating the SADC secretariat.
Keywords: Democratic Reversals, Democracy, Military, Southern African Development Community, Lesotho.
I. INTRODUCTION
Democratic consolidation is never a simple linear process without ups and downs. Even the consolidated democracies in Europe and America have experienced some reversals at some point. In Africa, good governance and democratic gains have in many cases been undermined by the involvement of the politicised military in state affairs. An epitome of these democratic rollbacks is exemplified by Guinea Bissau where on the 12 April 2012 and Mali where on the 21 March 2012 mutiny was witnessed when the armed forces meddled in politics (Okafor and Okafor, 2015:120). In this regard, Economic Community of Western African States (ECOWAS) successfully intervened in both plights of democratic erosion in an attempt to restore democratic gains in the region.
