MASERU

THERE were long queues at the Home Affairs offices in Maseru this week with scores of Basotho demanding new passports.

Some of them said they had been waiting for the passports for over a year, with the government not giving them a clear explanation as to why they had still not been issued with the travel document.

The crisis at Home Affairs comes at a time when more than 500 Basotho have been arrested in the last week for crossing the border into South Africa without passports.

Many of these were travelling back to South Africa where they are employed. The South African police mounted roadblocks a few kilometres from the border gates.

When thepost crew arrived at the passport office in Maseru yesterday, dozens were cuddled under the trees protecting themselves from the scorching sun.

One official from the passport office came out to tell the desperate applicants that he was going to issue passports only to those going to school or who work outside the country.

The official said the applicants should produce their work or study permits for them to be issued with passports.

‘Mampolokeng Poea, 41, a domestic worker in South Africa, told thepost that she applied for a passport in 2023 and it has not been issued since.

Poea went to South Africa in 2021 after being retrenched from textile factories in Maseru due to Covid-19.

“I have come here three times without success,” Poea said.

The mother of three said police chase them while at work in South Africa once it becomes clear to them that they are illegal immigrants.

We are always on the run, she said.

She said she illegally crossed into Lesotho for the Christmas holidays, assisted by “some boys” at the Maseru border, whom she paid.

She said if she would not get the passport by yesterday she would go to Maputsoe to illegally cross to South Africa as the Maseru border is now swarming with law enforcement agents.

“This is painful but there is nothing that we can do,” Poea said.

She said poverty pushed her out of her home to seek better fortunes in South Africa.

Her husband is also trying his luck in the construction sites but is struggling in South Africa.

“Men are the most vulnerable and prone to police attacks in South Africa,” she said.

Poea said she once exchanged harsh words with one passport official in Maseru when she enquired about her passport.

“That man told me that he does not make passports. He was not cooperative at all,” Poea said.

“Whether I get a passport or not, I am going to work in South Africa,” she said.

“If I managed to come here, I will also manage to go back.”

Another passport applicant, ’Malillo Napo, in her 50s, said she applied for a passport in February last year but it has not been issued to date.

Napo, a widow eking out a living in the South African domestic sector, blames the government for failure to produce passports.

What frustrates her is that the people who applied as recently as May have got their passports while she is still waiting.

“I do not know how this system operates,” Napo said.

Mputi Nkhasi, another applicant, said he has been coming to check for his passport that he applied for last year.

Nkhasi works at construction sites in South Africa.

“Whether I will get a passport or not, I am going to South Africa. I will cross the river,” Nkhasi said.

Last night, the Ministry of Home Affairs spokesperson ’Marelebohile Mothibeli said their operating system is down at the moment.

“We are still issuing the passports but our system is down,” Mothibeli said.

Majara Molupe

MASERU

PROMINENT businessman Bothata Mahlala could be set to challenge a decision by the Democratic Congress (DC) to block him from contesting for the party’s top leadership position, thepost heard this week.

The move comes after the DC national executive committee announced in a circular this week that the position of party leader, currently held by Mathibeli Mokhothu, will not be contested at the elective conference set for January 25 to 27.

Instead, the circular shows that Mahlala will contest for the deputy leader’s position against the incumbent, Motlalentoa Letsosa.

That decision has triggered a fierce response from Mahlala who told thepost yesterday that he was not happy with the party’s decision.

“I am dissatisfied with the decision,” Mahlala said.

“I will announce my next move to the media next week.”

thepost however understands that Mahlala, who has been a prominent funder of the DC over the years, could be seeking legal advice to challenge the national executive committee’s decision which he says is undemocratic and unconstitutional.

That could set the stage for a bruising legal battle within the DC that could leave the party seriously weakened.

Mahlala said the party’s decision to ring-fence Mokhothu’s position smacked of selfishness on the part of the leadership.

Mokhothu’s six-year term as party leader ends this month. He is seeking a new term as party leader.

“Instead of understanding and abiding by the rule of law, he (Mokhothu) claims he is under attack,” Mahlala said.

“I am not against anyone but only want to change Basotho’s lives. No one is fighting him. He is unhappy that some members want changes in the party.”

Mahlala said the party’s grassroots supporters were not happy with Mokhothu’s performance when the DC was in government between 2020 and 2022.

“I am not (interested) in party politics but politics that take the entire nation forward,” he said.

Mahlala said he is being accused of supporting Prime Minister Sam Matekane instead of wholly opposing him as a member of an opposition party.

“I do not support him as a party leader, but as a prime minister for all Basotho,” he said.

The DC’s spokesman, Serialong Qoo, said the circular is “the final decision by party members”.

Qoo took a swipe at Mahlala who he said had gone against the “culture” of the congress parties’ which does not allow members to openly tout for leadership positions without first being recommended from their villages, branches and constituencies.

“The recommendations as they appear in the circular are from the villages, branches and constituencies and were sent to the party head office,” Qoo said.

Qoo said it was wrong for Mahlala to announce to the media that he was going to contest for the leadership of the party even before the party structures had made such a declaration.

“It was also wrong (for him) to badmouth the leader of the party,” he said.

“In the congress movement we wait for the structures to recommend us.”

He said the circular clarifies that “Mahlala and other candidates have accepted the recommendations by the party structures”.

“Our office also has to verify the membership first, before publishing the entire list of contestants,” he said.

Nkheli Liphoto

MASERU

TWO men, who are suspected to be members of a violent syndicate that has been stealing cars in Lesotho, have been arrested.

The two, 23-year-old Molefe Matooane from Mpharane in Leribe and Tumelo Leoatla, 22, of Corn Exchange in the same district, appeared before the Leribe Magistrate’s Court in Tšifa-li-Mali on Monday.

The police said they are looking for three more men in connection with the organised crime.

The two were charged with the murder of Pitso Pitso, 49, on December 14 and the theft of his Honda Fit vehicle.

The court heard that Pitso, a taxi operator, was tricked into believing the two were customers who hired the car to a certain destination unaware that he had been hijacked.

Police say the duo strangled Pitso with a barbed wire until he died and then threw his body into the Nyenye Dam in Maputsoe.

The car was later tracked to South Africa, where it was found with a Mozambique number plate, occupied by four Mozambicans who failed to provide proper documentation.

“The vehicle was found occupied by four Mozambican nationals who failed to provide their documentation,” the police say.

The Mozambicans claimed that they had bought the car from a Lesotho citizen.

“We have the names of that citizen,” the police say.

The police received a tip-off that the syndicate was planning to strike again.

They followed the intelligence and found the two men in possession of a barbed wire, “indicating they were planning to commit another murder”.

The two young men have been remanded in custody and will reappear in court on January 14.

CarSotho, a company importing cars in Lesotho, says several stolen cars and goods were recovered in Lesotho recently.

In a report published last Sunday, the company said Lesotho and South African police collaborated in the search for stolen cars and other goods in Lesotho.

“This development underscores the ongoing challenge of cross-border crime and the importance of coordinated efforts to tackle such issues,” the company said, without specifying how many cars were recovered.

“The recovery operation not only serves as a victory for regional security but also boosts confidence in the ability of authorities to combat organised crime networks operating across borders,” it said.

The company said Lesotho “is often a transit point for stolen vehicles and contraband”.

“Criminal networks exploit the porous border to transport stolen goods, making cross-border cooperation critical to addressing the problem.”

Nkheli Liphoto