News

Surrogate mothers

Published

3 years ago

October 12, 2021

MASERU – FOUR years ago, ‘Makumane was approached by one of her cousins to become a surrogate mother for a foreign couple that was desperate for a baby.
It began as a lucrative agreement. The couple would pay for all the expenses as well as other perks. On her part, ‘Makumane agreed not to bond with the child, whom she had to surrender to the couple.
Although she was handsomely paid, ‘Makumane now regrets the entire episode, not least because she feels a deep sense of loss after surrendering the child to the biological parents.

“I still can’t get her out of my mind,” ‘Makumane told thepost.
A surrogate mother is a woman who gets artificially inseminated with the father’s sperm and then carry the baby and deliver it to the father and his partner to raise, according to WebMD.com.
WebMD.com is a website that says it is run by medical doctors and health experts “across a broad range of specialty areas to ensure WebMD’s content is up to date, accurate, and helps you live a healthier life”.
According to the website, “a technique called “in vitro fertilization” (IVF) now makes it possible to gather eggs from the mother, fertilise them with sperm from the father, and place the embryo into the uterus of a gestational surrogate.”

The surrogate then carries the baby until birth. They don’t have any genetic ties to the child because it wasn’t their egg that was used, according to the website.
Narrating her experience, ‘Makumane said she was screened to determine her wellness and the IVF procedure took place in Ladybrand in South Africa.
She said from the onset, the couple agreed to take care of her until the baby was born and paid for checkups at private hospitals.
She said although she had agreed not to bond with the child, she got emotionally attached once the pregnancy started showing.
“It was sad to have to give her up before I could even breastfeed her. I really wished I could have kept her because my first born was a son and I had hoped for a girl,” said ‘Makumane.

“But I had to stick to the contract regardless of how hard it was. I am slowly healing from my decision and there is a social media group I use as my coping mechanism as we share our stories in there.”
Married, ‘Makumane still went ahead with the procedure even though her partner and family didn’t understand it.
However, they gave her the leeway to make the final decision.
“At first, my cousin was the only one very supportive and eventually my family understood although it took them time.”
She said the couple lived in Lesotho for a while but ‘Makumane had no idea how they met her cousin.

Also involved in the process was her cousin’s father, a police officer who assisted with the signing of the contract.
“I still don’t know whether it’s legal and I had doubts about the offer. At some point, I thought she was planning to traffic me but the involvement of my uncle calmed me down,” said ‘Makumane, who was a factory worker at the time of the deal.
She said although it is said surrogacy is not paid for, some couples are desperate for a child that they can pay handsomely for the service.
“The couple built me a seven-roomed house, bought me an Audi and gave me M50 000,” she said.

‘Makumane said she regrets handing over the baby as “she looked cute”. “I am slowly working on getting over her, eventually I will succeed.”
‘Makumane said being a surrogate was stressful as she “suffered” for other people to have a child.
“It was worse as people around me didn’t understand the whole thing except for my cousin.”
She said she last saw the baby on the day she gave birth.
“I don’t know anything about her whereabouts or how she is doing wherever she is. I wish to see how grown she is…even a mere picture of her would make me feel better,” said ‘Makumane.
She said it wasn’t easy after parting ways with her.

“I regretted a lot and I can encourage people who are emotionally weak not to do it because it took me a long time to accept that the child is gone. The good news is that I now have a daughter.”
“The torture worsened when I witnessed people experiencing post-natal depression, disabilities and mental health problems after giving birth.
“I kept wondering ‘what if something like that happened to me?’ What if I went through the same thing? Yet it was not even my baby I was carrying. I got even more confused and swore never to do it again.”
She swore never to repeat it ever again.
“It’s a traumatising experience.”

SHE health clinic gynaecologist Dr Lineo Mabusela-Letlala said surrogacy is illegal in Lesotho.
“We don’t have its services at all.”
She said surrogacy comes in different forms – gestational where the surrogate mother is implanted with an egg and sperm of the couple. For Artificial Insemination (IUI), the sperm is injected directly into the women’s uterus without any intimacy and traditional, where the surrogacy’s own egg is used.
“IUI can be done all the time but it is tricky. A person can decide not to surrender the child, she can elope and leave. It’s all about trust,” she added.
In the legal procedure of surrogacy, she said garments are not supposed to be mixed.

With IVF, she said both the sperm and egg are implanted to the surrogate.
She said a number of reasons can lead to surrogacy such as a woman removing her womb, medically or socially or avoiding pain.
Dr Mabusela-Letlala said surrogacy is not practised in many countries. It is available in South Africa but not at all the facilities.
“The laws governing it are very strict.’’
She said a lot of screening takes place before a person becomes a surrogate. This includes screening for mental issues and psychological issues to ensure that the surrogacy is fit enough and also to understand how well versed the couple is on the process.

“The moment a surrogacy’s egg is used, she will personally feel that the child is hers leading to conflict of interest and such a person can legally fight for the baby. The surrogate shouldn’t be known. It has to be donated garments or that of a couple.”
She added: “After birth, the surrogate is not supposed to breastfeed the child and doesn’t even meet with the child. There is not even a bonding moment.”

She said in some areas, a surrogate is given a chance to hold the baby.
“Legally, it shouldn’t be happening, she shouldn’t be emotionally attached. In some places, surrogates are trained for professionalism.”
She said the practices done locally were illegal and there is no compensation for a surrogate.
“It has been happening traditionally and it is wrong.”

‘Mapule Motsopa

News

City Council bosses up for fraud

Published

16 hours ago

April 25, 2024

The Post

THREE senior Maseru City Council (MCC) bosses face charges of fraud, theft, corruption and money laundering.

Town clerk Molete Selete and consultant Molefe Nthabane appeared in the Maseru Magistrate’s Court yesterday.

City engineer Matsoso Tikoe did not appear as he was said to be out of the country. He will be arraigned when he returns.

They are charged together with Kenneth Leong, the project manager of SCIG-SMCG-TIM Joint Venture, the company that lost the M379 million Mpilo Boulevard contract in January.

The joint venture made up of two Chinese companies, Shanxi Construction Investment Group (SCIG) and Shanxi Mechanization Construction Group (SMCG), and local partner Tim Plant Hire (TIM), has also been charged.

Selete and Nthabane were released on bail of M5 000 and surety of M200 000 each. Leong was granted bail of M10 000 and surety of M400 000 or property of the same value.

The charges are a culmination of the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Offences (DCEO) investigation that has been going on for the past months or so.

The prosecution says Selete, Nthabane, Tikoe, and Leong acted in concert as they intentionally and unlawfully abused the functions of their offices by authorising an advance payment of M14 million to a joint-venture building the Mpilo Boulevard.

An advance payment guarantee is a commitment issued by a bank to pay a specified amount to one party of a contract on-demand as protection against the risk of the other party’s non-performance.

The prosecution says the payment was processed after the company had provided a dubious advance payment guarantee. It says the officials knew that the guarantee was fake and therefore unenforceable.

As revealed by thepost three weeks ago, SCIG and SMCG were responsible for providing the payment guarantee as lead partners in the joint venture.

The prosecution says the MCC was required by law to make advance payment after SCIG-SMCG-TIM Joint Venture submitted a guarantee as per the international standards on construction contracts.

It alleges that the MCC has now lost the M14 million paid to SCIG-SMCG-TIM Joint Venture because of the fake advanced guarantee.

thepost has seen minutes of meetings in which officials from the joint venture admitted to MCC officers that the advance payment guarantee was dubious.

SCIG-SMCG-TIM kept promising to provide a genuine guarantee but never did. Yet the MCC officials did not report the suspected fraud to the police or take any action against the company.

It was only in January this year that the MCC cancelled the contract on the basis that the company had failed to provide a genuine guarantee.

Despite receiving the advance payment SCIG and SMCG refused to pay TIM Joint Venture for the initial work.

SCIG and SMCG, the lead partners in the joint venture, are reportedly suing the MCC to restore the contract. Officials from TIM Plant Hire however say they are not aware of their partners’ lawsuit against the MCC.

Staff Reporter

News

Scott fights for free lawyer

Published

16 hours ago

April 25, 2024

The Post

DOUBLE-MURDER convict Lehlohonolo Scott is fighting the government to pay a lawyer to represent him in his appeal.

Scott, serving two life sentences for murdering Kamohelo Mohata and Moholobela Seetsa in 2012, says his efforts to get a state-sponsored lawyer have been repeatedly frustrated by the Registrar of the High Court, Advocate ’Mathato Sekoai.

He wants to appeal both conviction and sentence.

He has now filed an application in the High Court seeking an order to compel Advocate Sekoai to appoint a lawyer to represent him.

He tells the court that he is representing himself in that application because the Registrar has rejected his request to pay his legal fees or appoint a lawyer for him.

People who cannot fund their own legal costs can apply to the Registrar for what is called pro deo, legal representation paid for by the state.

Scott says Sekoai has told him to approach Legal Aid for assistance.

The Legal Aid office took a year to respond to him, verbally through correctional officers, saying it does not communicate directly with inmates.

The Legal Aid also said he doesn’t qualify to be their client.

“I was informed that one Mrs Papali, if I recall the name well, who is the Chief Legal Aid counsel, had said that Legal Aid does not communicate with inmates so she could not write back to me,” Scott says.

“Secondly, they represent people in minor cases. Thirdly, they represent indigent people of which she suggested I am not one of them.”

“Fourthly, there are no prospects of success in my case hence they won’t assist me.”

He says the Legal Aid’s fifth reason was that he has been in jail for a long time.

Scott is asking the High Court to set aside Sekoai’s decision and order her to facilitate pro deo services for him, saying her decision was “irregular, irrational, and unlawful”.

He argues that the Registrar’s role was to finance his case to finality, meaning up to the Court of Appeal.

The Registrar insists that the arrangement was to provide him a lawyer until his High Court trial ended.

Scott says his lawyer, Advocate Thulo Hoeane, who was paid by the state, had promised to file an appeal a day after his sentencing but he did not.

He argues that the Registrar did not hear him but arbitrarily decided to end pro deo.

Scott says he wrote to Acting Chief Justice ’Maseforo Mahase in 2018 soon after his conviction and sentencing seeking assistance but he never received any response.

Later, he wrote to Chief Justice Sakoane Sakoane in November 2020 and he received a response through Sekoai who rejected his request.

Scott tells the High Court that he managed to apply to the Court of Appeal on his own but the Registrar later told him, through correctional officers, that “the Court of Appeal does not permit ordinary people to approach it”.

He argues that “where justice or other public interest considerations demand, the courts have always departed from the rules without any problem”.

Staff Reporter

News

Army ordered to pay up

Published

16 hours ago

April 25, 2024

The Post

THE Ombudsman has asked parliament to intervene to force the Lesotho Defence Force (LDF) to compensate families of people killed by soldiers.
Advocate Tlotliso Polaki told parliament, in two damning reports on Monday, that the LDF is refusing to compensate the family of Lisebo Tang who was shot dead by soldiers near the former commander, Lieutenant General Tlali Kamoli’s home in 2014.

The LDF, she said, is also refusing to compensate the family of Molapo Molapo who was killed by a group of soldiers at his home in Peka, Ha-Leburu in 2022.

Advocate Polaki wrote the LDF in January last year saying it should pay Tang’s mother, Makhola Tang, M300 000 “as a reasonable and justifiable redress for loss of support”.

The Tang family claim investigation started in February 2022 and the LDF responded that it “had undertaken the responsibility for funeral expenses and other related costs”.

Advocate Polaki investigated whether the LDF could be held accountable for Tang’s death and whether his family should be compensated while the criminal case is pending.

She found that the soldiers were “acting within the scope of their employment to protect the army commander and his family” when they killed Tang.

Soldiers killed Tang in Lithabaneng while she was in a parked car with her boyfriend at what the army termed “a compromising spot” near the commander’s residence.

The three soldiers peppered the vehicle with a volley of shots, killing Tang and wounding the boyfriend.

Advocate Polaki found that the army arranged to pay for the funeral costs and to continue buying groceries and school needs for Tang’s daughter.

The LDF, however, kept this for only four years but abruptly stopped.

When asked why it stopped, the army said “there is a criminal case pending in court”.

The army also said it felt that it would be admitting guilt if it compensated the Tang’s family.

The Ombudsman said “a civil claim for pecuniary compensation lodged is not dependent on the criminal proceedings running at the same time”.

“The LDF created a legitimate but unreasonable expectation and commitments between themselves and the complainant which had no duration attached thereto and which showed a willingness to cooperate and work harmoniously together,” Advocate Polaki found.

“The LDF was correct in withdrawing such benefit in the absence of a clear policy guideline or order to continue to offer such benefit or advantage,” she said.

“However, she should have been consulted first as the decision was prejudicial to her interest.”

She said the army’s undertaking “fell short of a critical element of duration and reasonability”.

Tang was a breadwinner working at Pick ’n Pay Supermarket as a cleaner earning M2 000 a month.

Her daughter, the Ombudsman said, is now in grade six and her school fees alone had escalated to M3 200 per year.

She said an appropriate redress should be premised on her family’s loss of income and future loss of support based on her salary and the prejudice suffered by her mother and daughter.

She said M300 000 is “a reasonable and justifiable redress for loss of support”.

In Molapo’s case, Advocate Polaki told parliament that the LDF refused to implement her recommendations to compensate his two daughters.

The complainant is his father, Thabo Joel Molapo.

The Ombudsman told the army in August last year that it should pay the girls M423 805 “for the negligent death of their father”.

Advocate Polaki said despite that the criminal matter is before the court, “it is established that the Ombudsman can assert her jurisdiction and make determinations on the complaint”.

Molapo, 32, was brutally murdered by a soldier in Peka in December 2020.

Molapo had earlier fought with the soldier and disarmed him.

The soldier, the Ombudsman found, rushed to Mokota-koti army post to request backup to recover his rifle. When he returned with his colleagues, they found him hiding in his house. The soldier then shot Molapo.

The LDF, the Ombudsman said, conceded that the soldier killed Molapo while on duty and that he had been subjected to internal disciplinary processes.

“The LDF is bound by the consequences of the officer’s actions who was negligent and caused Molapo’s death,” she said.

She found that after Molapo was killed, army officers and the Minister of Defence visited his family and pledged to pay his children’s school fees. They also promised to hire one of his relatives who would “cater for the needs of the deceased’s children going forward”.

The LDF, she said, has now reneged on its promises saying its “recruitment policy and legal considerations did not allow for such decision to be implemented”.

Molapo’s father told the Ombudsman that the LDF said “the undertakings were not implementable and were made by the minister at the time just to console the family”.

All the payments in the two cases, the Ombudsman has asked parliament, should be made within three months.

Staff Reporter