Cape Town — Lesotho's political and security crisis this year has contributed to slowing economic growth substantially, according to an International Monetary Fund (IMF) report.
Natalia Koliadina, head of an IMF technical team which ended a visit to Maseru this week, said real growth in Lesotho's gross domestic product was expected to be just over two percent in the current financial period, down from 3.5 percent a year ago.
"Construction in particular has been affected by delays in new investment — notably slow implementation of government projects," Koliadina said. However, international reserves remained strong mainly because of Lesotho's share of revenue from the Southern African Customs Union.
"Improving growth prospects and maintaining economic stability are the main challenges facing the government in preparing next year's budget," Koliadina added. "Investing in physical and human capital, while sustaining ample international reserves would help address these challenges."
Lesotho will have early elections in February in a bid to overcome the paralysis caused by divisions in the coalition government formed after the last elections in 2012.
In another development, the country's three top security chiefs have left the country on a "leave of absence" in the run-up to the elections.
Lesotho has been plagued for much of its post-independence history by its security forces' politically partisan behaviour, and after Prime Minister Tom Thabane suspended Parliament earlier this year to avoid a vote of no confidence, army units took over the streets of the capital, Maseru, and invaded police stations.
The crisis was defused when regional leaders, acting through the Southern African Development Community (SADC), mediated a settlement which included early elections. The terms of the settlement included temporarily sending two army generals and the police chief out of the country.
Lieutenant General Tlali Kamoli, who led the rebellion against Prime Minister Thabane, Lieutenant General Maaparankoe Mahao, who was appointed in Kamoli's place, and police Commissioner Khotatso Tsooana have been sent on "working visits in their related fields of work" to Uganda, Sudan and Algeria, said the SADC's principal mediator, South Africa's Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Their departure would "allow... space for normalcy" in the build-up to new elections and was "an important confidence building measure in returning the country to security stability," Ramaphosa added.
