Tributes pour in for Molefe

MASERU-MPALIPALI Molefe, the All Basotho Convention (ABC) MP who died last week after a long illness, will be laid to rest at his home in Sebelekoane in ’Maliepetsane constituency tomorrow.
He was 69.

Molefe will be remembered as a specialist in the diamond industry. He was also a key player in the construction sector.
His friends who spoke at his memorial service in Maseru on Tuesday said Molefe was a jovial character who had a wicked sense of humour.
He was also passionate about business and economic development, they said.

“He was such a good man and despite the health problems that he was going through he managed to smile,” said one of his friends from Zambia.
His son, Thabo Molefe, said the father would not undermine anyone in his life.
“He taught us never to look down on someone and we grew up with such principles,” Thabo said.

He recalled how his father had set up his own diamond school called the Lesotho Diamonds Academy.
“The opening of the school was very successful and we are proud that the school still continues even today even though we went through a lot of difficulties here and there,” Thabo said.

Molefe pledged to take up the mantle from where his left had left and ensure that the school continues to operate.
He said through the Lesotho Diamonds Academy his father met a lot of influential players across the world, sharing and researching information on how other countries regulate their mineral resources.
He said his father always criticised the way Lesotho’s diamonds were being lost to other countries without benefitting the locals.

“He assisted in the formulation of the mining policy and I thank the mining sector for allowing the diamond centre to continue,” he said.
He recalled how his father, after an educational trip to Botswana, was so excited about the diamond sector only to be frustrated by the massive bureaucracy at home.
Molefe said his father wanted Lesotho to have a museum, especially when Lesotho had recovered unique diamonds, saying the entire world would visit Lesotho and that would enhance the economy.

The ABC youth league spokesman, Mphonyane Lebesa, said Molefe was a jovial character at party rallies.
He described Molefe as a hard worker for the party since its establishment in 2006.

“It is unfortunate that he was never appointed a minister despite the hard work he put in for the party,” he said.
Lebesa said party leader, Thomas Thabane, had lost a valuable asset for the party with the 2022 elections just around the corner.
He urged all ABC members to go back to their good old ways because Thabane did not form the party for conflicts and individual interests to thrive but to advance Basotho’s interests.

He said the ABC members should know that by fighting they are hurting the people who support and vote for the party.
’Mathato Phafoli, who is also an MP for the ABC, said Molefe always fought for peace and stability in the ABC.
“He was always (wearing) a smile and he always wished for the oneness of all ABC members,” Phafoli said.

He said ABC members should allow Molefe’s death to unite the party and bring peace and unity adding they “must start talking the same talk as ABC MPs”.
“It is embarrassing that every time people talk, they are talking about ABC Members of Parliament fighting each other,” she said.
The ABC secretary general, Lebohang Hlaele, said Molefe was “a kind of a clown who always made people laugh irrespective of their problems”.
People genuinely liked him, he said.

Hlaele said they know their weaknesses and their strengths adding that ABC members should unite and not be allowed to split on factional grounds.
He urged the ’Maliepetsane constituency to meet and carefully choose Molefe’s successor.
The Stadium Area MP, Mokherane Tsatsanyane, who last year defected to join the Alliance of Democrats (AD), said Molefe protected them in his own house before they fled the country in 2017.

He said slammed party officials who think they are the only ones who should enjoy a better life.
“Some people call themselves ABC members yet Thabane is there at Makhoakhoeng where he is living with a heavy heart due to ABC members who do not respect him,” Tsatsanyane said.
“Now the prime minister does not answer Thabane’s calls yet he made him a prime minister,” he said.

Tsatsanyane said he is regretting not choosing Sam Rapapa as the Prime Minister instead of Moeketsi Majoro whom he said had left them disappointed.
He said Molefe and the late Eddie Poone, a Maseru diamond dealer, donated M30 000 for him to buy an ambulance in his constituency.
“Today I do not have both of them,” he said.

He said Molefe should have been made a minister of mining as he had expertise in the field.
Molefe will be remembered by his eagerness to stop famo related murders in his constituency.
Molefe, who was also the chairperson of the parliament portfolio committee on natural resources, believed that Lesotho could graduate out of poverty if it could use its untapped natural resources to the fullest.
Molefe was the only MP dealing with diamonds.

His love for diamonds began in Letšeng Diamond Mine where he worked as a senior technician doing daily recordings of the diamond production.
Molefe had 37 dependents apart from his wife and three children.
He was a Mosotho who believed in Sesotho customs of taking care of his siblings’ orphans and widows.
Born in a family of seven children where schooling seemed impossible, Molefe was fortunate to enrol with Sebelekoane Primary School in 1956.

Molefe wormed his way to the secondary level where he enrolled with Holy Name Secondary School in Bela-Bela in Berea district.
While he was at Holy Name, he was expelled by the management because he was always after girls during those days.

What made him famous in those days was that he was a soccer player.
After being booted out of Holy Name, Molefe says he headed to ’Masentle High School back in his home district in 1974.
When he completed his studies at ’Masentle High School, Molefe enrolled with the then National Teachers Training College which is now called the Lesotho College of Education in 1975.
He had an insatiable desire to be one of the most educated not only in his village but at country level.

He was attached at ’Mabathoana High School where he produced good results in Commerce.
After graduation, he went to Nazareth High School which was later renamed Morapeli High School where he became a headmaster.
Molefe left teaching and worked as an Assistant Accountant at the Lesotho Mohair Project.

He later joined Letšeng Diamond.
Alongside his work as the MP of ’Maliepetsane, Molefe was still working as a diamond dealer.
Since he always wanted to venture into uncharted territories, Molefe got involved in Labour Construction Unit where he saw himself working as contractor.

He started Molefe Civil and Building Construction Company in 1986 where he built schools around the country.
He also constructed roads in some parts of the country.

Nkheli Liphoto