THE commission of inquiry into the breakout at the Maseru Correctional facility last December will cost a staggering M2 million.
The budget allocation was revealed by Law Minister Richard Ramoeletsi in parliament on Monday.

High Court judge Justice Realeboha Mathaba, former Deputy Prime Minister Kelebone Maope, and ex-Commissioner of the Lesotho Correctional Service (LCS) Mojalefa Thulo, have been sworn in as commissioners.

Justice Mathaba is the chairman.

The gazette establishing the commission says it will investigate, appraise and evaluate the circumstances that led to the escape of the inmates from jail on December 22 last year. It will also assess security measures within the facility.

The commission will probe circumstances around the search operations conducted by LCS officers after the six inmates escaped.

It will also identify officers who took part in the search and allegations of the use of force against 300 inmates in the aftermath of the escape.

This comes after Ombudsman Tlotliso Polaki recommended that the government urgently establish a commission of inquiry into the assault of inmates.

Advocate Polaki had established that over 300 inmates out of 650 at the Maseru Correctional facility “were tortured, beaten up and whipped” as the jail warders probed the escape.

One of the escapees who was later captured, Bokang Tsoako, was killed.

The Ombudsman found that most of the beatings occurred particularly in areas without video surveillance cameras and were covered up by false reporting.

The warders had claimed that some of the inmates, especially nine soldiers awaiting trials in custody, were hostile during the search.

“It was established without a doubt that inmates were beaten by officers unprovoked, slapped and aggressively searched to pick fights,” Advocate Polaki found.

“The officers seem to have huddled up as recruits to get their stories straight and report with bogus scenarios justifying the abuse,” she said.

“The evidence pointed to a well-orchestrated plan to torture and ill-treat inmates, in particular, it was mainly targeted at members of the LDF who remain incarcerated to date but somehow affected all other inmates in different cells.”

The Ombudsman said the ‘tacit acquiescence’ of senior officers, who were present at the time, to inmates administered abuse and punishment together with the alarming level of use of force directed at the inmates “was particularly telling of the culture” at the correctional facility.

Ramoeletsi said the commission is already in operation and will work for two months.

“There will be an extension of a month if the need arises,” Ramoeletsi said.

He said the commission will conduct its investigation in line with the ombudsman’s report and the evidence provided by the LCS managers.

“The commission is already on step one of operation, soon the days to commence will be announced,” he said.

The Basotho National Party (BNP) leader Machesetsa Mofomobe described the commission as a “waste of public funds”, arguing that it is likely to “duplicate” the ombudsman’s investigation into the same matter.

“I have a feeling that money will be wasted on the job that has already been done by the other arm of government,” Mofomobe said.

“There was no need for a commission,” he said.

Ramoeletsi however responded that “the ombudsman’s report will be used in the investigation”.

“The Ombudsman did not conduct a deep investigation. She did not reach some parts,” he said.

He also said the Ombudsman has recommended the commission of inquiry.

Nkheli Liphoto

THE Ombudsman has asked parliament to intervene to force the Lesotho Defence Force (LDF) to compensate families of people killed by soldiers.

Advocate Tlotliso Polaki told parliament, in two damning reports on Monday, that the LDF is refusing to compensate the family of Lisebo Tang who was shot dead by soldiers near the former commander, Lieutenant General Tlali Kamoli’s home in 2014.

The LDF, she said, is also refusing to compensate the family of Molapo Molapo who was killed by a group of soldiers at his home in Peka, Ha-Leburu in 2022.

Advocate Polaki wrote the LDF in January last year saying it should pay Tang’s mother, Makhola Tang, M300 000 “as a reasonable and justifiable redress for loss of support”.

The Tang family claim investigation started in February 2022 and the LDF responded that it “had undertaken the responsibility for funeral expenses and other related costs”.

Advocate Polaki investigated whether the LDF could be held accountable for Tang’s death and whether his family should be compensated while the criminal case is pending.

She found that the soldiers were “acting within the scope of their employment to protect the army commander and his family” when they killed Tang.

Soldiers killed Tang in Lithabaneng while she was in a parked car with her boyfriend at what the army termed “a compromising spot” near the commander’s residence.

The three soldiers peppered the vehicle with a volley of shots, killing Tang and wounding the boyfriend.

Advocate Polaki found that the army arranged to pay for the funeral costs and to continue buying groceries and school needs for Tang’s daughter.

The LDF, however, kept this for only four years but abruptly stopped.

When asked why it stopped, the army said “there is a criminal case pending in court”.

The army also said it felt that it would be admitting guilt if it compensated the Tang’s family.

The Ombudsman said “a civil claim for pecuniary compensation lodged is not dependent on the criminal proceedings running at the same time”.

“The LDF created a legitimate but unreasonable expectation and commitments between themselves and the complainant which had no duration attached thereto and which showed a willingness to cooperate and work harmoniously together,” Advocate Polaki found.

“The LDF was correct in withdrawing such benefit in the absence of a clear policy guideline or order to continue to offer such benefit or advantage,” she said.

“However, she should have been consulted first as the decision was prejudicial to her interest.”

She said the army’s undertaking “fell short of a critical element of duration and reasonability”.

Tang was a breadwinner working at Pick ’n Pay Supermarket as a cleaner earning M2 000 a month.

Her daughter, the Ombudsman said, is now in grade six and her school fees alone had escalated to M3 200 per year.

She said an appropriate redress should be premised on her family’s loss of income and future loss of support based on her salary and the prejudice suffered by her mother and daughter.

She said M300 000 is “a reasonable and justifiable redress for loss of support”.

In Molapo’s case, Advocate Polaki told parliament that the LDF refused to implement her recommendations to compensate his two daughters.

The complainant is his father, Thabo Joel Molapo.

The Ombudsman told the army in August last year that it should pay the girls M423 805 “for the negligent death of their father”.

Advocate Polaki said despite that the criminal matter is before the court, “it is established that the Ombudsman can assert her jurisdiction and make determinations on the complaint”.

Molapo, 32, was brutally murdered by a soldier in Peka in December 2020.

Molapo had earlier fought with the soldier and disarmed him.

The soldier, the Ombudsman found, rushed to Mokota-koti army post to request backup to recover his rifle. When he returned with his colleagues, they found him hiding in his house. The soldier then shot Molapo.

The LDF, the Ombudsman said, conceded that the soldier killed Molapo while on duty and that he had been subjected to internal disciplinary processes.

“The LDF is bound by the consequences of the officer’s actions who was negligent and caused Molapo’s death,” she said.

She found that after Molapo was killed, army officers and the Minister of Defence visited his family and pledged to pay his children’s school fees. They also promised to hire one of his relatives who would “cater for the needs of the deceased’s children going forward”.

The LDF, she said, has now reneged on its promises saying its “recruitment policy and legal considerations did not allow for such decision to be implemented”.

Molapo’s father told the Ombudsman that the LDF said “the undertakings were not implementable and were made by the minister at the time just to console the family”.

All the payments in the two cases, the Ombudsman has asked parliament, should be made within three months.

Staff Reporter

THE Basotho Action Party (BAP) says it has filled vacancies that were created by the mass resignations that rocked the party in the past two months.
The new appointees are Ralitapole Letsoela, Teboho Lehloenya, Mothea Mpharoane, Makoala Marake and Mothepu Monku who are now members of the party’s working committee.

Lepolesa Makutoane, who has been acting as both the party’s spokesman and secretary general, has now been appointed the party’s new secretary general.

The BAP was hit by two major resignations two weeks ago as party leader Professor Nqosa Mahao was involved in a fierce tug-of-war with Energy Ministry principal secretary, Tankiso Phapano.

MP Tello Kibane, the party’s chairman, and Tlhabeli Mojapela who was the youth league’s spokesman, also resigned accusing Professor Mahao of tyranny.

Earlier the party’s secretary general, Lebohang Thotanyane, who had been suspended, also resigned.

Two other members of the national executive committee through the women’s league, ’Mamotheo ’Molaoa and Penkula Moheeane, were fired for leaking an audio clip on why Professor Mahao had made a sharp U-turn to join the coalition government after months of publicly criticising it.

The replacements were done in a bid to stabilise the party committees, Makutoane told thepost.

Makutoane said all the vacant positions have been filled “except the chairperson’s seat that we are negotiating with Tello Kibane so that he can return”.

He said the reason they cannot fill Kibane’s position is that his resignation would not be in the best interests of the party as he stated in his resignation letter.

“We still need his presence, which is why we have entered into talks with him,” Makutoane said.

He said the committee has appointed Lehloenya to occupy the director of communications’ position that has been vacant since Thotanyana’s resignation.

“I was then moved from my communications position to secretary general after Thotanyana resigned, and the position has been vacant since then,” he said.

A party circular seen by thepost said the BAP’s national executive committee had resolved to appoint Lerato Khaka and Teboho Lehloenya to the committee.

Lehloenya is now the director of communications, media and marketing.

The circular has also rejected a call by constituencies from Leribe district for a special meeting that would elect a new chairman after Kibane tendered his resignation.

Nkheli Liphoto