Ministry of Communications, Science and Technology, was initially called the department of Information and Broadcasting up until late 1980s. It was manned by three sections namely Administration, Information and Broadcasting.
The Department of information as one of the first departments had the main function of issuing a newspaper called Basutoland Times. Radio Lesotho under the Broadcasting section was launched in 1964, using the Roman Catholic Church Transmitter. Two years after independence Lesotho Government established the Lesotho National Broadcasting Services (LNBS) which was and still known as Radio Lesotho.
In 1988 the LNBS introduced a one hour television channel; now known as Lesotho Television. This was made possible by the agreement between the then Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and South African based independent commercial television station M-Net.
In the early years of its launch in the 1960s Radio Lesotho broadcast for only one hour, and in 1997 a 24-hour broadcast was introduced. The following year a fully computerized broadcast studio was introduced.
Later in 1990, Lesotho News Agency (LENA) which was established as a project under the auspices of UNESCO was officially handed over to the Lesotho Government as a department. Its mandate is to collect information around the country and distribute news to different subscribers in and outside the country.
A restructuring and realignment of some of government ministries and departments in 2002 led to the joining of Postal Services (a department from Ministry of Post, Transport and Telecommunications) as an additional department under the Ministry. The arrival of Postal Services culminated in the renaming of Ministry of Information and Broadcasting into Ministry of Communications. The latest development of the Ministry of Communications was in 2003 when the Department of Science and Technology joined the Ministry and the Ministry of Communications was renamed the Ministry of Communications, Science and Technology. In 2004 Information Communications Technology (ICT) department was established as a new department within the ministry
Values largely set the culture that will drive management and staff behaviour in pursuing the mission and achieving high levels of organiational performance. The following are the MCST cherished values:
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