MASERU – THE victim was an estranged wife refusing divorce to block her husband from marrying his sweetheart, 40 years his junior. The husband was a powerful political mover and shaker only three days away from being inaugurated as Prime Minister. The sweetheart was a garrulous, mercurial and irrepressibly ambitious beauty who had sustained a decade-long relationship with the evidently smitten politician.

The victim was Lipolelo Thabane. Thomas Thabane was the husband and his sweetheart was ‘Maesaiah. Two years back, during Thabane’s first stint as Prime Minister, ‘Maesaiah had brazenly moved into the State House and enjoyed the handsome per diems that came with being the Prime Minister’s plus-one on international trips.

Now Thabane was about to be the Prime Minister again but the estranged Lipolelo was opposing divorce and insisting that she will be the First Lady. She had to die and she did in the cruelest of ways. As Lipolelo drove on a dirt road to her home on the outskirts of Maseru, with a friend, gunmen sprayed bullets on her car and disappeared into the night.

She died on the spot while her friend, Thato Sibolla, spent months battling for her life in hospital. With the estranged wife eliminated, Thabane took the oath of office as Prime Minister with ‘Maesaiah beaming from the tent packed with dignitaries.

She was hit plus one. They would marry at an opulent event a few days later to confirm a marriage that many already knew had existed for years despite the lack of rings and a wedding to publicly confirm it.

But even as the bride glided on the red carpet in a yellow gown, some in the terraces of the stadium mumbled about how she had to eliminate the prime minister’s wife to be in that dress and be the star of the event.
Some twisted their faces in disgust as she said “I do” and the Prime Minister clasped her face to plant a passionate kiss on her mascaraed lips.

To many, this was a marriage borne out of a murder. Their motive was to do what they were doing now: marrying. It, therefore, did not come as a surprise when, a few years later, ‘Maesaiah was arraigned for Lipolelo’s murder. That her husband, Thabane, was also in on the murder did not shock many. After all, this is what many had suspected.

The police would add details that would confirm what, until then, had been a rumour. ‘Maesaiah would skip the country, slither back, get charged, granted a dubious bail and locked up for a few days after the bail was overturned on appeal.

Then began the endless court appearances at which she would sometimes throw tantrums at journalists snapping her pictures. Thabane would initially avoid charges by arguing that being prime minister made him immune to prosecution. He would eventually leave office after pressure from his party, the government and regional peers.

Stripped of his immunity and the wife bereft of the power and influence that comes with being married to the Prime Minister, the two entered the court.

The stage had been set for what promised to be an epic trial that would grip the nation. It was supposed to be Lesotho’s trial of the decade, if not the 21st century. And so the country waited with bated breath. Soon, they thought, they would hear the lurid details of how the murder was hatched and executed.

For a brief moment, it looked like they were about to get ringside tickets to the murder trial already in international headlines. As per the police’s charge sheet and affidavits, they heard how Thababe and his wife promised M3 million to the hitmen hired to kill Lipolelo.

They were told that the couple also promised government jobs to some of the assassins. They heard stories about the couple’s connections to a famo music gang notorious for hits on rivals and being used as hitmen.

The police and the prosecution said they had nearly 50 witnesses ready to give incriminating evidence against the Thabanes. But those acquainted with Lesotho’s judiciary and how it is like a sieve with special holes for the connected and powerful remained sceptical. Their doubts were not without justification. They had seen how previous high-profile cases start with such high drama but fizzle when it mattered the most.
These cases ranged from abuse of office to murder. As the Thabanes prepared for another appearance that was set for July, two cases appeared to vindicate the doubting Thomases and confirm their mistrust of the courts.

First was the acquittal of Thabo Moramotse, the Local Government and Chieftainship Affairs Minister, Lehlohonolo Moramotse’s murder-accused son, accused of his sister-in-law’s murder. The judge ruled that the prosecution was relying on the confession that Moramotse claimed after being tortured by the police.

“In conclusion, it is, therefore, the view of this court that this confession stands to be held as inadmissible on the grounds of the mutual destructiveness of the defence and police versions,” Justice Semapo Peete said in his judgement.

Thabo Moramotse walked free. Then came the spectacular acquittal of businessman Tšeliso Nthane for the murder of his driver. Again, the prosecution was in the spotlight for its bungling by failing to conduct investigations and interview credible eyewitnesses.

Yet even the staunchest sceptics would not have predicted what happened on Tuesday this week. A day before the Thabanes appeared in court, some newspapers speculated that Thababe would finally be charged and join his wife in the dock.

They were not far off the mark because that is what the prosecution had been promising for the past two years. The prosecution however had a surprise. Less than a minute is how long it took to end what was supposed to be Lesotho’s trial of the decade. It was a hastily delivered anti-climax to an elaborate but sad spectacle that has dragged on for five years.

Gareth Leppan, a South African advocate recently hired by the DPP to prosecute Thabane and his wife, came to court to announce his failure and that of his boss.

Advocate Leppan told the court that the prosecution was withdrawing the case against the Thabanes because it could not find a key state witness.

“My lord we have been unable to trace a particularly important witness in this matter. And having discussed this matter with the Director of Public Prosecutions, the said director has decided to withdraw the charges in this matter my Lord and accordingly today that is the application to this court that the charges be withdrawn,” Advocate Leppan said.

With those brief words, the prosecutor ended the highly anticipated trial before it even started, leaving people to salivate and speculate as to what would have happened.

What was supposed to be an epic trial is dead, at least for now. As Advocate Leppan sank back into his chair a buzz of excitement spread through the public gallery dominated by Thabane’s supporters.

But Advocate Leppan’s announcement had also ploughed a dagger into the heart of one woman who immediately started wailing. She would continue to weep for the next hour as Thabanes’ lawyers addressed the court in what appeared to be a “victory lap”. Armed with the prosecution’s admission that it was retreating, the lawyers painted Thabane and his wife as victims of a political conspiracy.

Thabane and his wife had been harassed by the police and tried in the public court, one said. It was because of these concocted charges that Thabane had been hounded out of office and forced to end his tenure prematurely, he said. Were it not for those cooked-up charges Thabane would still be prime minister, he added.

The media, both local and international, had turned the trumped-up charges against the Thabanes into fodder for sensational headlines.

“Accused number two (Thomas Thabane) is now 83 years old heading to 84, he is a retired Prime Minister who should be resting and enjoying the peace of his mind, yet he had been dragged to the court for two years, four months and some days, only for the crown to say its house is not in order,” Advocate Phafane lamented.

“The inevitable conclusion that the crown never had a case against the accused in the first place, is one of those cases that one can safely say, the crown or the police were playing for the gallery, they were playing for the media, they were playing political games,” Advocate Phafane said.

He said the case was used to remove Thabane from office prematurely. Attorney Qhalehang Letsika was equally scathing in his criticism of the police’s handling of the case. Police Commissioner Holomo Molibeli had been one of the beneficiaries of the unfounded charges against the Thabanes, Attorney Letsika said.

His logic was that Commissioner Molibeli only brought the charges against Messiah when Thabane wanted to fire him. He asked the court to order the prosecution to pay the Thabanes’ legal costs.  The judge however gently let him down and he didn’t pursue the matter. When the lawyers were eventually done with their monologues, the judge asked: “So what do you want me to do?”

“Nothing, your honour,” one of them says.

The public anger towards the withdrawal of the case is palpable. You see it in the reactions on social media. One prominent lawyer wondered why the prosecution was claiming that it didn’t have witnesses when one of them told the police that the Thabanes instructed her to deliver money to Lipolelo’s killers. Others vented their anger at the courts while others said they had always known that the Thabanes would be let off the hook. The truth however is more nuanced.

The prosecution appears to have been caught between a rock and a hard place. Although there are 39 witnesses, only four have direct knowledge of the planning and the execution of the murder. Those four, who are Basotho based in South Africa, appear reluctant to give statements to the police.

Some are said to have been playing “hide and seek” with the police. thepost has been told that there is an agreement that the case against the Thabanes would falter without those testimonies.

“Their evidence is so crucial that the prosecution cannot proceed without them,” said an official close to the case.

Two of those witnesses are members of the famo music gang that organised the hit while the other two know about how the murder was planned.

“The prosecution knew that the defence was now planning to apply for acquittal on the basis that the cases had been delayed for too long and the case against ‘Maesaiah is not proceeding,” said a source privy to the prosecution’s internal discussions about the case.

“If the prosecution had charged Thabane it meant he had to enter a plea and the case would have to proceed. But the trouble was that the prosecution is still struggling to get the four key witnesses.”

“They don’t know when those witnesses will be available”.

He said the withdrawal is a “strategic retreat rather than a surrender” Rarely do murder cases come with such prominent suspects, lurid details and high drama. This one has been told at bar counters, funerals and weddings.
The police have told it too in fascinating detail. So have the prosecution. The only missing side of the story is that of the accused.

But we may never know because the prosecution has chickened out and withdrawn the case. The source said the prosecution could still reinstate the charges once it finds the witnesses. That leaves some hope that the Thabanes will have their day in court but many believe the case is as dead as a dodo.

Staff Reporter