There is something profoundly revealing about what governments choose to celebrate when the economy is struggling.
This week, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Business Development proudly “relaunched” the 2026 National Quality Awards. A press conference was convened. A ceremony date announced. Categories unveiled. Application forms printed. Deadlines set.
And one is left wondering: is this really where the state believes its intervention is most needed?
Lesotho is facing stagnant production, a collapsing manufacturing base, deepening import dependence and a private sector that survives more by resilience than by policy support. Access to finance remains constrained. Infrastructure is weak. Energy is unreliable. Markets are small and fragmented. Bureaucracy is heavy. Regulation is inconsistent. Confidence is fragile.
And in response, the state offers trophies.
We are told the awards were reinstated to “motivate and uplift the spirits of businesses”. That alone should worry us. Businesses do not need emotional uplift from the Ministry of Trade. They need working industrial policy. They need predictable regulation. They need functioning export support, reliable standards enforcement, cheaper logistics, and access to capital.
Motivation does not fix structural failure.
The irony is painful. The same government that cannot ensure timely VAT refunds, cannot meaningfully support local producers, and cannot protect emerging industries from being wiped out by imports, is confident in its ability to judge who the “Best Exporter of the Year” is.
Best exporter to where, exactly? Under what conditions? With what support? Using which trade facilitation mechanisms?
Awards without substance are not recognition. They are performance art.
Even the framing is telling. The awards were paused due to financial challenges. Fair enough. But their “reinstatement” is now presented as evidence of seriousness. As if restarting a ceremony is equivalent to restarting an economy. As if business confidence is built through applause rather than policy.
There is also something quietly insulting about asking struggling businesses to fill in application forms by 12 January, barely days into the new year, as if what entrepreneurs lack most is paperwork and deadlines from ministries that have delivered little else.
What exactly is being rewarded here? Survival? Compliance? Obedience? Visibility?
If the Ministry were serious, the press conference would have announced concrete measures. Sector-specific incentives. Targeted import controls. Export credit guarantees. Industrial clustering. Cold-chain investments. Market access agreements. Skills pipelines. Anything measurable. Anything structural.
Instead, we get categories and certificates.
This is not to say excellence should not be recognised. But recognition must follow achievement that was enabled by policy, not substitute for it. When awards come before strategy, they expose a government more interested in optics than outcomes.
The deeper problem is philosophical. Lesotho’s state has become far more comfortable celebrating activity than delivering impact. Launches, relaunches, ceremonies and announcements have replaced execution. It is governance by event calendar.
The business community does not need to be “uplifted”. It needs to be taken seriously.
Until the Ministry of Trade can demonstrate that it understands the difference between encouragement and intervention, between symbolism and substance, and between governance and theatre, these awards will remain what they truly are.
A shiny distraction from an economy still waiting for leadership.
