MASERU – THE Basotho National Party (BNP) has become the latest party to be rocked by infighting triggered by its dismal performance in the October election.

As the party grapples to come to terms with its thumping defeat bigwigs have been pelting each other with blame for the poor performance.

So intense is the internal feuding that the party is now said to be on the verge of implosion.

In the tug of war is the party’s secretary general, Moeketsi Hanyane, who this week fired a salvo at party leader Machesetsa Mofomobe.

Hanyane told a press conference on Tuesday that Mofomobe should accept the blame for leading the party to its worst election defeat in history.

He said instead of taking responsibility as a leader, Mofomobe is blaming him for the dismissal performance.

Mofomobe has however fired back, accusing Hanyane of being rebellious.

“It has been a while since I have been shouldering the blame for the general election’s poor results,” Hanyane said, adding that Mofomobe has been instigating his supporters to insult him.

He said the party did not perform well because it didn’t have money to campaign.

He said the BNP did not get its share of the political campaign funding from the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) because it failed to account for what it received in the 2015 election.

Out of the M175 000 that the BNP was supposed to get from the IEC, it got only M15 000 as campaign funds, Hanyane said.

He also said those in the past BNP national executive committee, of which Mofomobe was a member, did not account for the campaign funding received in 2017.

“As a result, our party failed to secure M111 000.”

Hanyane said because of the financial problems the party used rentals from its BNP Centre to fund the rallies in Maputsoe, Quthing, Mafeteng and Teya-Teyaneng.

He said this was the first time since 1993 that the party could not afford to print campaign regalia.

Hanyane also said the national executive committee is chaotic under Mofomobe’s leadership.

“They accuse other members of sabotage, which shows a lack of cooperation in the party.”

Mofomobe, Hanyane added, spent more time mocking other party leaders instead of advancing the BNP’s values and policies.

He said instead of pleading with members of other parties to vote for the BNP, Mofomobe called them “idiots beyond redemption”.

No wonder, Hanyane said, people turned against the party.

He said Mofomobe was not ashamed to use valuable campaign time to mock leaders who own aeroplanes.

“He said their aeroplanes were made of cardboxes, and that was his campaign message,” he said.

He also said the BNP supporters were put off by Mofomobe’s close relations with

Democratic Congress (DC) leader, Mathibeli Mokhothu.

“That issue did not sit well with some party supporters and followers in constituencies,” Hanyane said.

He said Mofomobe angered the chiefs and the church, the party’s traditional pillars.

“The chiefs regarded our party as one of the parties that were fighting them and the church too, those are the pillars of the party.”

He said Mofomobe should “go back and apologise to the chiefs and the church for hurting them”.

“The leadership should also apologise to the members where they did wrong.”

Mofomobe however said Hanyane will face the music for organising a press conference without the national executive committee’s approval.

“The party will meet as soon as possible to take internal measures against the secretary general for doing what he did,” Mofomobe said.

He accused Hanyane of ignoring his orders.

“I told him to go on radio to campaign for the Stadium Area elections but he refused and I ended up going there myself,” Mofomobe said.

He said he will not hate Mokhothu without a valid reason.

“I will not hate him just because people want me to hate him,” he said.

He also stated that although they work well with Mokhothu he has his own reservations that include the DC’s support for Lieutenant General Tlali Kamoli who has been wallowing in remand prison for the past five years as he goes through trial for murder, attempted murders and treason charges.

The DC is on record pushing for the withdrawal of charges against Lt Gen Kamoli.

Mofomobe said he is not the first BNP leader to work with congress parties as Leabua Jonathan, the party founder, once worked with Basutoland Congress Party (BCP)’s Pokane Ramoreboli who he made justice minister.

Nkheli Liphoto 

MASERU – A soldier who insulted his superior for stopping him from joining a crowd that later killed a civilian during a drunken fit of anger at a bar has lost his bid to overturn his dismissal from the army.

The Court of Appeal last week ruled that army commander, Lieutenant General Mojalefa Letsoela, followed the law to the letter when he fired Private Lehlohonolo Alotsi.

The case was before the President of the Court of Appeal, Professor Kananelo Mosito, Justices Phillip Musonda and November Mtshiya.

The court found that on Christmas Day of 2018, Alotsi, together with nine other soldiers, was on patrol at the Ha-Peete Military Base.

They went to a local bar and ended up staying outside the barracks until after 10pm, which is the prescribed time for soldiers to be back inside the barracks. A fight broke out at the bar between the soldiers and some civilians.

The soldiers went back to the barracks and ordered their superior, one Corporal Thabi, to hand over some riffles to them. Corporal Thabi ordered them not to go but his orders were ignored.

Alotsi told the court that he did not go but admitted that he used abusive language against his superior. Thereafter there was a shootout at the bar leading to the death of a civilian. Some civilians were also injured in the shootout.

On New Year’s Eve Alotsi and his co-accused appeared before Presiding Officer, Major Lekoatsa, for summary trial relating to military offences they had committed at Ha-Peete. They all pleaded guilty to the charges laid against them.

Alotsi was charged with disobedience, acting in a disorderly manner, and using inappropriate language to a superior officer. Major Lekoatsa found him guilty and sentenced him to 80 days in detention.

He was also severely reprimanded. Major Lekoatsa told Alotsi that he had 14 days within which to appeal against the sentence.

Alotsi did not challenge both the conviction and sentence at that time and only did so when Lt Gen Letsoela wrote him a letter saying he should give reasons why he should not be fired.

It was during this time when he revealed that Major Lekoatsa had coerced him to confess even though he was not involved in committing the crimes, apart from disrespecting his superior.

In his letter to Lt Gen Letsoela, Alotsi apologised for being out of the barracks beyond 10pm, saying he did not do it intentionally.

“My intention was still to make it back on time but being human, I got carried away,” he pleaded.

“General Sir,” he continued, “here I give a full account of the truth.”

He told the army boss that there was a fight that broke out at a bar and he had no idea how it started and how it ended.

He said they ran back to the barracks to ask for guns to rescue one Private Ramarou.

“I, Pvt Alotsi, was never given a gun, the guns were given to Private Teolo and Private Khoaisanyane,” he said.

“Commander Lesotho Defence Staff, General Sir, I yet again implore you for mercy as I had been in an unwarranted exchange with Corporal Tlhabi, where it appears that I insulted him,” he pleaded.

“I am not a vulgar person at all. I am a soldier who respects a lot, I follow orders,” he said.

“Corporal Tlhabi was ordering me to not go back with the soldiers to go get Private Ramarou. I indeed stayed behind.”

“I deeply apologise, General, Sir.”

The court found that Lt Gen Letsoela has prerogative to fire any soldier or officer if in his judgment his continued service “is not in the best interests of the Defence Force” or the soldier “has been convicted of a civil or military offence”.

“Depending on the gravity of the offence, (the army commander), even in a situation where a soldier is pardoned, (may) still proceed to discharge him or her,” the court said.

“There is no dispute that the offences committed were serious and obviously offended the standing ethics of the force.”

Alotsi had taken the commander to the High Court saying he was being punished twice. The High Court dismissed his application, leading to this appeal.

QACHA’S NEK – A Nigerian couple appeared in the Qacha’s Nek Magistrates’ Court this week for running an unregistered school.

Raymond and Nora Onouha are accused of continuing to operate their school despite that the government had shut it down in April this year. The court heard that the couple kept operating the school until September when it was forced to close again.

The wife, Nora, was the one working at the school while the husband, Raymond, was allegedly managing it from Nigeria. However, Raymond was present in court to answer the charges.

The court heard that the couple opened a pre-school in 2012 which they registered but when the students graduated to the primary level, they enrolled them in their new primary school.

The prosecution says the couple knew that it was not supposed to enroll children in an unregistered school in January this year but continued to do so despite that they were stopped.

Parents whose children enrolled at the school, named Precious Primary School, testified that the school had enrolled students for grades one up to three.

’Matšepo Mokoma, a parent, said her eight-year-old son is in Grade Three at Precious Primary School, confirming that the Onouhas were actually running the school.

Mokoma said her son stopped going to school at the end of September when the government forced the school to close.

Mokoma said her son had been attending the Onouhas’ school for the past seven years, starting from pre-school when he was just two-years-old.

She also told the court as part of the evidence that parents would sometimes be invited to meetings which were chaired by the Onouhas.

“My child has been at Precious school since he was only two and he is now eight years old,” Mokoma said.

She however said she was happy with the quality of education her son got there and she wrote a letter to the owner to enroll him in the primary school when he graduated from the pre-school. Mokoma told the court that she was not aware that the school was not yet registered.

“I only noticed when my child had to stop going to school after it was shut down,” she said.

The Education CEO in Qacha’s Nek district, Lebenya Mothibeli, said Precious Primary was not registered as a primary school but as a pre-school. Mothibeli said his office is not aware whether the school has met the requirements for being a primary school, such as whether the school buildings are safe enough for the children.

“The office is also not even aware whether the school has water in the yard and toilets that are in a good condition for the children,” Mothibeli said.

Raymond said he did not have any primary school students at his school.

“I only have students whose parents wrote letters asking me to keep their children because they are happy with the quality of education they got,” he said.

“Those are the only kids I kept,” he said.

Raymond told the court that the education the children got was suitable for their age but did not mention if it was for primary or pre-school students.

He said he applied for a certificate to operate legally but he waited for a long time for the certificate to be issued, so long that he even went to Maseru himself to see if his application was already at the headquarters.

He said he discovered that his application was still in Qacha’s Nek.

“I understand that Mothibeli did not send my application to Maseru,” he said.

He said Mothibeli never liked it when they registered for a primary school. He accused Mothibeli of deliberately stalling the application. Thato Masoabi, a former teacher at the school, said back in 2020 Precious only had pre school students.

But this year she was teaching Grade One students who were taught primary school subjects. Masoabi said she was instructed by the owner of the school, Nora Onouha, to teach the children the primary school syllabus.

She said Nora once told her that the school is in the process of registering with the Ministry of Education. The Education Act of 2010 requires a mandatory certificate of registration for all schools.

The law forced all unregistered schools to register with the Ministry of Education or they would be closed. It is an offence punishable by a jail sentence to operate an illegal school in Lesotho. The case continues.

Those Ramolibeli