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

LERIBE

A Butha-Buthe widow is fighting her stepchildren in court after she accused them of making illegal withdrawals of cash from her bank account.

’Maletšela Letšela told the High Court in Tšifa-li-Mali that her four stepchildren had taken advantage of her age and gained access to her money through her late husband’s death certificate which they used to withdraw some cash.

She did not reveal how much had been withdrawn from the account.

Letšela pleaded with the court to order the children to return her late husband’s death certificate.

Maletšela was the second wife to the late Mohlabakobo Letšela.

Mohlabakobo’s first wife died in 1991.

Letšela told the court in an urgent application that she married Mohlabakobo through customary rites in 1999 and they subsequently solemnised their union by civil rights in November 2003.

“I should state that I married my husband as a widower, his wife having passed away leaving behind four children who are respondents in the matter,” Letšela said.

Letšela has two children with Mohlabakobo.

She said at the time of the first wife’s death, they had already amassed property in the form of a residential house in Mokhotlong and rental flats in Butha-Buthe.

“I have always considered this property as belonging to the children of my husband’s first marriage and continue to hold that view,” Letšela said.

“During my marriage and before my husband’s death, we built a residential property at Makopo, Ha-Letšolo, in the district of Butha-Buthe,” she said.

“I had helped my husband to raise his children as my own and we have been living together as a family at my matrimonial home located at Makopo, Ha-Letšolo, until he passed away in October 2024, after a long illness.”

Letšela said after the death of her husband, they worked peacefully with his children without any sense of animosity and they appreciated her role as the widow and joint owner of her husband’s estate.

“This feeling is aided by a written deposition signed by Refiloe and Lietsietsi Letšela (Mohlabakobo’s children from the first marriage) nominating me as the heir in respect of monies held in my husband’s name at both the First National Bank and Standard Bank of Lesotho,” she said.

She said Mohlabakobo, with the aid of the family, wrote letters to appoint her heir to his estate in the event of his death.

She said even the children rightfully appointed her as the beneficiary in respect of these monies with a clear understanding that as a spouse to their late father, she was the rightful person to claim for benefits deriving out of his estate.

She said with the aid of the letter, she was able to withdraw funds from the banks to cover the funeral costs.

“Shortly after my husband’s burial, I was approached by Refiloe, who requested an original copy of my husband’s death certificate claiming she wanted to trace funds in my husband’s bank account held at Post Bank in South Africa,” she said.

“Sensing no harm, I released the copy to her and she left in the company of her brother and sister.”

She said she had no sense at that point whatsoever that Refiloe’s intentions were malicious.

“By that time Refiloe had already assumed possession of my husband’s phone and vehicle, and I did not complain owing to my old age and my understanding that

I did not know how to operate a smart phone, and my lack of skills to drive a car,” she said.

The siblings, she said, never brought any report regarding the funds they were to trace.

“I got suspicious of their actions and immediately sought intervention from the Butha-Buthe police.”

The police called Refiloe instructing her to return the death certificate, but she informed the officer that the copy was now in the custody of her sibling Litsietsi in South Africa.

Litsietsi later responded that she would “return the certificate on Wednesday, November 20, 2024 but that did not happen rather they are now claiming they never took it”.

“Sensing that the situation had gone out of hand, I decided to go to Post Bank with the aim of tracing the movement of these children,” she said.

Letšela said the bank manager told her that the children had instituted a claim as beneficiaries of the funds using the same death certificate.

The manager, she said, advised her to secure a letter of authority from the Master of the High Court for them to handle her case.

The Master of the High Court, she said, could not help her because she did not have the original copy of the certificate.

“I have no other alternative but to seek the court’s intervention as I was advised no actions could be taken without the court’s order.”

’Malimpho Majoro

MASERU

KNORX Molelle’s appointment as the Director General of the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Offences (DCEO) in February 2023 could have been illegal.

The Law Society of Lesotho has told Prime Minister Sam Matekane that Molelle was appointed without being admitted as a legal practitioner in Lesotho, as required by law.

The society claims the information came from a whistleblower on January 2 and was corroborated by its roll of legal practitioners in Lesotho.

The society says the appointment violates section 4 of the Prevention of Corruption and Economic Offences Act 1999 which states that a person shall not be appointed as the DCEO director general unless they have been admitted as a legal practitioner in terms of the Legal Practitioners Act.

In the letter, Advocate Ithabeleng Phamotse, the society’s secretary, tells Matekane that this requirement “is not a mere procedural formality but a substantive qualification essential to the lawful appointment of the Director General”.

“The absence of such qualification fatally impairs the appointment ab initio, rendering it null and void from the outset,” Advocate Phamotse says in the letter written on Tuesday.

The society argues that if left unaddressed the illegality undermines the credibility, effectiveness and legality of the DCEO’s operations and exposes the kingdom to serious risks, including challenges to the lawfulness of decisions and actions made by Molelle.

“Should it be confirmed that the appointment was made in contravention of the mandatory legal requirements,” Advocate Phamotse said, “we respectfully urge you to take immediate corrective action to rectify this glaring irregularity”.

Advocate Phamotse tells the prime minister that if the appointment is not corrected, the society would be “left with no alternative but to institute legal proceedings to protect the interests of justice and uphold the rule of law in Lesotho”.

“We trust that you will accord this matter your highest priority and act decisively to avert further damage to the integrity of our governance structures.”

The Prime Minister’s spokesman, Thapelo Mabote, said they received the letter but Matekane had not yet read it yesterday.

Matekane is on leave and is expected back in the office on January 14.

Questions over the validity of his appointment come as Molelle is being haunted by the damaging audio clips that were leaked last week.

The clips were clandestinely recorded by Basotho National Party leader, Machesetsa Mofomobe.

In some of the clips, Molelle appears to be describing Matekane and his deputy Justice Nthomeng Majara as idiots. He also appears to be calling Law Minister Richard Ramoeletsi a devil.

In other clips, he seems to be discussing cases. thepost has not independently verified the authenticity of the audio clips.

Staff Reporter