- But Malebaleba refutes allegations
- says he had right to question Bosiu’s conduct
Mohloai Mpesi
ADVOCATE Mary Bosiu, who last week quit as a board member of the Lesotho Electricity Company (LEC), claims she was threatened by Revolution for Prosperity (RFP) legislator, Isaac Malebaleba, over her work in trying to correct the wrongs at the troubled power utility.
But she also says that Mr Malebaleba’s threat to get her fired from the LEC board was not the real reason for her resignation. She had ultimately resigned because she could not tolerate how the board was being run and its failure to rein in maladministration at the parastatal.
Mr Malebaleba nonetheless refutes the allegations that she threatened Advocate Bosiu with expulsion from the LEC board if she did not play ball. He says he only approached her to question her why she was pushing for the return of suspended members of the LEC’s executive management before a probe into their conduct had been completed.
The LEC suspended 10 senior managers of the LEC on 12 March pending a probe into their alleged misconduct.
Mr Malebaleba is the RFP legislator for Thaba-Bosiu constituency. He is believed to be a strong ally and fixer of Prime Minister Sam Matekane.
Because of his proximity to the Prime Minister, he is thought to wield enormous power in government, enabling him to determine the course of events in any given ministry or parastatal.
Advocate Bosiu resigned from the LEC board on 17 May 2025, after accusing it of making “unprecedented decisions” that had plunged the company into a financial crisis.
In her resignation letter, Adv Bosiu raised concerns about the LEC board’s decision to institute a forensic audit into the behaviour of the suspended executive management members at a huge cost to the already struggling LEC. She preferred any audit to be conducted by the Auditor-General.
But Adv Bosiu told the Sunday Express she had instead been accused by Mr Malebaleba of doing the bidding for the suspended executives.
He accused her of being involved in a WhatsApp group of the suspended LEC executives, she claimed.
Mr Malebaleba, Adv Bosiu alleged, warned her that she must be aware that she was brought into the LEC board by the former Minister of Energy, Professor Nqosa Mahao, who was no longer part of the government.
There would thus be no one to save her if action was taken against her, she claims to have been warned by Mr Malebaleba. But she then had already decided to resign.
Prof Mahao was fired by Prime Minister Sam Matekane in November 2024 after the two fell out. Prof Mahao had joined the Matekane-led coalition administration to help the premier avert an opposition no confidence vote in October 2023.
Mr Malebaleba has rubbished the claims against him, stating that he never made any threats against Adv Bosiu.
He nevertheless admits to calling Adv Bosiu. But he says that was only to inquire about why she was pushing for the suspended members of the LEC’s executive committee to be reinstated while the ongoing investigations were still underway.
According to Mr Malebaleba, the suspended staffers should remain on ice pending the completion of the investigations against them. The Auditor-General’s office is now conducting the audit.
Mr Malebaleba said he had suspected that Ad Bosiu could be part of the rot at the LEC.
He questioned Adv Bosiu’s resignation, asserting that “the learned advocate might be running away from her actions”.
Adv Bosiu, on the other hand, said he could not understand why Mr Malebaleba was interested in the LEC’s issues.
She claimed that he had warned her that she was only an LEC board member because she had been appointed by Prof Mahao who had fallen out with the Prime Minister Matekane. They could therefore easily replace her. In the event, she said she had already decided to quit the LEC.
Adv Bosiu said she had always advocated that the suspended managers be probed by the Auditor General. She could not understand why the board wanted to hire expensive external forensic auditors when the LEC was in financial dire straits.
Any probe by the AG would have required the suspended executives to be back at work to answer for their alleged transgressions, she said.
Mr Malebaleba seems to have been ferociously opposed to that idea.
He said he could not understand why the suspended managers should return to work before the probe into their behaviour was concluded.
Mr Malebaleba said he only questioned Advocate Bosiu in his capacity as an MP. He said as an MP he had a right to probe any cases of malfeasance. He wanted to know why executive managers whom he said had cost the LEC more than M1 billion could simply be returned to work so easily.
Mr Malebaleba said he had been surprised that Adv Bosiu had quickly resigned shortly after he questioned her on LEC matters.
“Why would you resign when a member of parliament asks you about what is happening at LEC?” Mr Malebaleba asked.
“I have a right to ask because I am the government. I went to parliament to oversee government money, so I have a right to ask Adv Bosiu about things happening at LEC.”
Mr Malebaleba added that the suspended employees should only return to work “once their matters have been resolved and they have been cleared of wrongdoing, not before the investigations are complete”.