Lesotho: Passport Crisis Exposes Deeper Governance Failures

THE ongoing passport issuance crisis is more than an administrative backlog, it is a mirror reflecting deeper governance failures that continue to burden ordinary Basotho, particularly those whose livelihoods depend on cross-border work in South Africa.

While the government has pledged to issue passports within three days, the lived reality of applicants queuing for days without assistance exposes a troubling gap between policy pronouncements and actual service delivery.

For thousands of Basotho,…