Stop Praising Mediocrity: Lesotho Deserves Better Business Role Models
Those we often look up to as the best among us—supposedly scaling the heights of entrepreneurial success in Lesotho—haven’t done so through brilliance or innovation. Let’s be honest: many have climbed because of political connections.
Tell me—how many of our so-called “top dogs” got to where they are because of something they actually built or produced?
And have you ever wondered why so many of them are drawn to politics?
You think it’s because they want to serve?
Bull dust. It’s so they can be right there in the kitchen, controlling who eats and how big the portions are.
That’s exactly why we need to dial back the hype and ask the hard questions:
1. What should the gold standard of business excellence be in this country?
2. Who actually deserves to be emulated as a business role model?
If we don’t stop and answer these questions, Lesotho will continue producing a weak, dependent, and uninspired brand of entrepreneurship. And that’s dangerous—because it means the country’s full economic potential will remain trapped.
Lesotho will continue to be treated like a non-entity—a nuisance on the global stage. Like when Donald Trump casually referred to us as “some African country nobody’s ever heard of.” That kind of disdain reflects our failure to leverage what could be our most powerful tool for transformation: business.
Business has the power to wake this country up, move it forward, and give it a future. But not if we keep holding up as heroes those who, in any other country, wouldn’t even be considered competent—let alone excellent.
To unleash Lesotho’s true potential, we need to urgently recalibrate our understanding of what real entrepreneurship looks like—by spotlighting and elevating those who take real risks, innovate, and build, not shutting them out.
These are the real top dogs. The ones with grit, ideas, and vision. The ones who dream, build, fail, learn, and rise again. Their innovations, their courage, their refusal to wait for permission—must be tapped, not left outside the tent.
This won’t be easy, given how entrepreneurship in Lesotho is built on political favour—not actual value. Politicians have, as a consequence, become very powerful. But sadly, not as enablers of the economy, but as gatekeepers to opportunity and resources.
We must arrest this phenomenon.
Because unless we do, all our talk about growth, jobs, and ending poverty will remain just that—talk. Lesotho will stay a nation that waits, begs, borrows, and survives on the goodwill of others.
And as our population grows, that scarcity mindset will mean less opportunity, less value, and a smaller pie for all of us. The stampede into politics by leading business figures will only get worse.
Don’t be fooled—this isn’t ambition. It’s survival.
They’re diving into politics because it’s the only guaranteed access to the economic pie—especially once they realise they’re incapable of producing or sustaining real value on their own, without the largesse of the political system that propped them up.
Because remember: in Lesotho, politics doesn’t just give you power—it gives you a living.
This must change.
Rethinking who we celebrate, who we honour, who we quote, and who we call visionary is a necessary starting point.
Doing this will strengthen and galvanise Lesotho’s true entrepreneurs—brilliant, bold, and buried under the noise.
They’re out there every day: dreaming, building, failing, learning, rising again. Often unrecognised. Often poor. But rich in value.
And far from the political spotlight—which is exactly why their power is real.
As we desist from confusing connections with competence, and stop praising the politically blessed over the truly excellent, a new standard for entrepreneurial excellence in Lesotho will slowly—but surely—begin to emerge.
Because it’s not success born of proximity to power that should inspire us, but grit, innovation, and value creation.
Those are the role models Lesotho deserves.
Poloko Khabele
