MASERU

THE Basotho Action Party (BAP)’s Central Executive Committee has appealed against Justice Molefi Makara’s ruling that it has no powers to suspend Motlatsi Maqelepo and Tello Kibane.

Maqelepo is the BAP deputy leader while Kibane is the chairman of the caucus in parliament.

In a ruling delivered on Tuesday, Justice Makara said the party’s disciplinary committee did not have the powers to discipline the duo when there is a pending High Court case.

The judge also said the executive committee cannot suspend the two when there is a court case seeking to interdict it from doing so.

“The matter is sub judice and it has to be so treated,” Justice Makara said on Tuesday.

The BAP’s central executive committee suspended Maqelepo for seven years and Kibane for five years beginning last Tuesday.

Maqelepo’s suspension will end on January 7, 2032 while Kibane’s will be until January 7, 2030.

Their suspension letters from the BAP deputy secretary general Victoria Qheku, say they should not participate in any of the party’s activities.

They were suspended in absentia after they refused to attend the disciplinary hearing, which they said was illegal.

Yesterday, the BAP leader, Professor Nqosa Mahao, filed an appeal against the High Court ruling.

Professor Mahao, as the first applicant along with the BAP and the disciplinary committee, argued that Justice Makara had erred and misdirected himself when he said he had jurisdiction to interfere with the internal matters of the party.

He reasoned that the High Court ignored the prayers that are purely constitutional under the 1993 Lesotho Constitution.

He said the court erred and misdirected itself “in granting the interim prayers in the face of a jurisdictional objection where no exceptional circumstances existed, especially where the applicants would have remedies in due cause”.

“The Court a quo erred and misdirected itself in granting the interim reliefs retrospectively,” the court papers read.

Maqelepo had earlier argued that there is a court case that is pending in the High Court seeking to interdict the party from charging them in its structures without approval of the special conference he is calling.

He said the party leadership should have awaited the outcome of the case before proceeding with any disciplinary action.

“The party that is led by a professor of law continues to do dismissals despite the issue being taken to the courts,” Maqelepo said.

He said their fate in the party is in the hands of the special conference.

He appealed to all the party constituencies to continue writing letters proposing the special conference.

Maqelepo, Kibane, Hilda Van Rooyen, and ’Mamoipone Senauoane are accused of supporting a move to remove Professor Mahao from his ministerial position last year.

They were part of BAP members who asked Prime Minister Sam Matekane to fire Professor Mahao, who at the same time was pushing for the reshuffle of Tankiso Phapano, the principal secretary for the Ministry of Energy.

When Matekane ignored Professor Mahao’s demands, the latter withdrew the BAP from the coalition government. That decision was fiercely opposed by the party’s four MPs.

Maqelepo started touting members from constituencies to call for the special conference to reverse Professor Mahao and the central executive committee’s decision.

The central executive committee issued a circular stopping Maqelepo’s rallies but he continued, with the support of the other MPs.

In the BAP caucus of six MPs, it is only Professor Mahao and ’Manyaneso Taole who support the withdrawal from the government.

Majara Molupe

MASERU

VILLAGERS in Nqechane, Leribe, were last Saturday allegedly assaulted and forced to roll on the ground by soldiers during an operation to retrieve illegal guns.

Narrating the ordeal, the village headman Chief Leja Kukune said he heard his dogs barking furiously in the middle of the night.

When he rose to check, he was met by soldiers at the door.

“I half-opened the door and talked to the soldiers who asked me if I was the village chief,” Chief Kukune said.

“I told them that I was just a headman under the area chief,” he said.

They instructed him to collect all the village men and take them to Romeng, some 30 minutes’ walk for a gathering.

“I asked them what kind of gathering was going to be held at night.”

Chief Kukune said he asked the soldiers to allow him to go back into the house to put on more clothes because it was chilly that night.

When he got out of the house, he saw some men coming with soldiers who were flaunting guns.

Chief Kukune said the soldiers drove them to Romeng where the brutal assault started.

“The soldiers asked who Leja was and I responded that it was me,” he said.

He said the soldiers separated him from other men and told him that they had three issues with him.

“They asked me to produce a gun,” he said.

Also, they told him that he is a member of a banned famo music group in the country.

Thirdly, they asked him why he  holds public gatherings without informing his area chief.

Chief Kukune said he told the soldiers that he had only applied for a gun which had not yet been approved.

He said he told the soldiers that his area chief had failed to preserve the pastures.

“I told them that l had successfully preserved the pastures,” he said.

While still being interrogated, other men were being beaten up and made to roll on the ground as they were told to hand over illegal guns.

“Some were limping while others sustained serious injuries,” the chief said.

“Those who had come home for the holidays hurriedly left even before their holiday’s time had ended claiming that they were no longer feeling safe in the village,” Chief Kukune said.

He said there is no banned gang in his village but a group called Likhamane that is not associated with famo.

“This association looks after needy people and buys them some presents,” he said.

The army spokesman, Major Kelebone Mothibi, said they had “a successful operation in Leribe where we found
one unlicensed firearm and five bags of dagga”.

“There is unrest in the village where the area chief, who is a female, has been attacked at night when she tries to bring order in the area,” Major Mothibi said.

“We did not torture them but we reprimanded them,” he said.

Majara Molupe

MASERU

Basotho National Party (BNP) leader, Machesetsa Mofomobe, was grilled by the police on Tuesday following the leak of audio clips in which the Prime Minister and his deputy were insulted.

In the clips, the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Offences (DCEO) director general, Knorx Molelle, was heard referring to Prime Minister Sam Matekane and Deputy Prime Minister Nthomeng Majara as idiots.

He also had no kind words for his immediate boss, Law and Justice Minister Richard Ramoeletsi.

Mofomobe told thepost yesterday that he had indeed been interrogated.

“I spent the whole day there being questioned,” Mofomobe said.

“I was before a big team of the police.”

Mofomobe said the police demanded to know if the voice in the clip was his and he said yes.

He was however quick to point out that he was not put under any duress during the interrogation.

“I do not want to badmouth them, the interview was good,” Mofomobe said.

He said the police simply wanted to know about the leaked voice clips that went viral on social media platforms.

He said he told them that he did not know anything about their leakage.

“I think we were recorded,” Mofomobe said. “I think our room was bugged”.

He said apart from him, two other people, Molelle and the DCEO’s senior investigator, Thabiso Thibeli, were also in the room.

“Thibeli did not take even 30 minutes in the office. He left the office and there were only the two of us.”

Thibeli told thepost that he was in fact the one who had summoned Mofomobe to the DCEO offices to interview him about a docket that had been leaked.

“He went on air and spoke about that docket. I had called him but he asked to go to the director general,” Thibeli said.

“I am the one who took him there,” he said.

Mofomobe said he told the police that he only read about the leaked conversation which was transcribed by a local newspaper on Thursday.

Before that he did not know about the leaked clips.

He said on the previous day the paper called him and asked that he provides them with the clips.

“I told them that I did not have the clips,” he said.

“I did not record our conversation with Advocate Molelle,” he said.

“When people were asking me about the clips, I thought they were lying.”

Mofomobe said he only got the voice clips for the first time on Friday and he listened to them.

“What would I benefit from recording Advocate Molelle?” he asked.

He said he grew up with Molelle and attended school with him at primary level.

Mofomobe said he also worked with Molelle’s father, Sekhohola Molelle,in the BNP when he was the treasurer general.

He said Molelle’s father became a BNP MP for two terms.

“I am not holding any grudge against him,” he said.

Meanwhile, Molelle is on a two-week leave that started on Monday, four days after he was summoned by the police apparently in connection with the clips.

Police spokesman Senior Superintendent Mpiti Mopeli said he was not aware that Mofomobe had been summoned.

Majara Molupe