Tšolo Thakeli, better known as Tjekatjeka, drew national attention this week after he dared to publicly criticise Prime Minister Sam Matekane.
At the centre of his criticism was what he felt was a lacklustre attempt by Matekane to fight unemployment and create jobs for thousands of Basotho youths.
In a Facebook post, Thakeli attacked what he called Matekane’s failure to fulfil his electoral promises.
What irked him most was the fact that Matekane was calling a “jobs summit” three years after he assumed the reins of power.
That sharp criticism appears to have touched a raw nerve within the government and its security agencies.
Stung by the criticism, the government appears to have set the police on Thakeli. The police summoned Thakeli for interrogation last Sunday. They even confiscated his cellphone.
He was eventually released only for the police to raid his home again in the evening around 9pm. He spent the night in the holding cells and was due to appear in court the following day.
On Monday, the Maseru Magistrates’ Court said it did not have jurisdiction over the matter.
The police eventually took him to the Berea Magistrates’ Court in Teya-Teyaneng.
The case never took off from there.
Thakeli claims that some police officers tried to pressure him to apologise for “insulting” the Prime Minister. A defiant Thakeli told this newspaper last night that he is not going to be silenced.
At the time of writing this editorial last night, the police had still not pinned down a charge against the youthful activist.
They have however accused Thakeli of “breaching the peace” through his Facebook post, a charge so broad as to criminalise free speech.
We are not surprised therefore that Southern Defenders, a network of human rights defenders, has already issued a statement condemning “the arbitrary arrest, harassment and intimidation of Thakeli”.
The group said Thakeli’s treatment at the hands of state authorities constitutes a serious violation of fundamental rights and reflects an alarming trend of state expression in the country.
Southern Defenders said Thakeli had merely expressed his constitutionally and internationally recognised and protected right to freedom of expression.
We agree.
In fact, we would go as far as to assert that Thakeli was within his constitutionally protected rights to criticise the Prime Minister or any other government official for that matter.
Even if one were to insult a government official, we would argue that such expression should be protected as a basic and inalienable right to free speech especially in the political arena.
That may be tough to take.
But that is how things must be in a democratic society.
Politicians must not seek to silence critics, no matter how unpalatable the language and content may be.
This of course may be virgin territory for the government led by Matekane. For the past three years, they have soaked up adulations from an adoring citizenry. That honeymoon may now be over.
The government must now get used to unbridled criticism, especially from youths whose patience is fast running out.
By harassing Thakeli, the government risks elevating Thakeli’s stature in the eyes of the public into some kind of hero.
In fact, it has unwittingly built up his national and international profile while at the same time spotlighting the international gaze on Lesotho.
It would be sad if the government, through its security agencies, resort to draconian tactics to silence dissenting voices.
Those are the tactics we often associate with benighted, dictatorial regimes north of the Limpopo. Such tactics should have no space in a democratic Lesotho.
