When the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Offences (DCEO) Director General, Brigadier Advocate Mantšo Sello, declared 2026 the “Year of Being Fed Up”, the statement left more questions than answers, based on the DCEO’s conviction rate which is next to non-existent.
After years of brazen looting, collapsing public services and serial scandals that end without consequence, that anger is not only understandable — it is overdue. But righteous rhetoric, however stirring, will not rescue a credibility deficit that has dogged the DCEO for years. Without action, Sello’s words mean absolutely nothing.
The DCEO has, regrettably, become something of a national punchline. It is feared by the powerless, resented by the accused, and quietly dismissed by the public as an institution that makes noise but delivers no justice. Its reputation is built not on convictions but on press conferences, and endless remands that embarrass suspects without ever securing a final court outcome. In a country gasping for accountability, the DCEO has perfected the art of spectacle over substance.
Basotho are tired of seeing suspects paraded in handcuffs only to later on walk free because of shoddy investigations, weak dockets, or incompetent prosecutions. The pattern is depressingly familiar: dramatic arrests, breathless headlines, prolonged remands, procedural blunders, case collapse. The result is not justice but reputational damage — often irreversible — inflicted without legal closure. This is not fighting corruption; it is institutionalised harassment masquerading as law enforcement.
Adv Sello himself conceded the obvious when he reminded prosecutors that “the public judges us by the convictions we secure in court”. That statement alone is an indictment of the DCEO’s record.
For an agency that has existed for more than two decades, the near-absence of successful, high-impact convictions speaks volumes. Corruption has flourished not because there are no laws, but because there are no consequences.
What makes the situation more infuriating is that corruption cases are not disappearing because suspects are innocent saints. They collapse because the DCEO too often fails at the basics: proper evidence gathering, airtight investigations, and disciplined prosecution. When cases are thrown out of court, it is not the accused who look foolish — it is the institution meant to protect the public interest.
The damage extends beyond lost cases. By repeatedly failing to prosecute matters to finality, the DCEO has eroded public trust in the justice system itself. Citizens increasingly believe that corruption is a low-risk, high-reward enterprise. If caught, one is more likely to be inconvenienced than convicted. That perception is lethal to democracy, development and social cohesion.
Adv Sello’s “Year of Being Fed Up” will ring hollow unless it begins with brutal institutional self-reflection. Being fed up should mean better cases and resisting political pressure to arrest for headlines. It should mean refusing to drag people to court unless investigators and prosecutors are confident of securing convictions. Anything less is cruelty disguised as anti-corruption work.
Equally troubling is the selective nature of enforcement. The DCEO has been accused of tiptoeing around politically connected heavyweights. This perception, whether accurate or not, thrives precisely because the agency lacks courtroom victories to silence critics. Convictions are the only antidote to accusations of bias.
The public does not need more slogans, themes or motivational speeches. Basotho need results. They need to see stolen money recovered, corrupt officials jailed and procurement cartels dismantled. They need to see that anti-corruption institutions can act professionally, independently and competently — not theatrically.
If Adv Sello is serious, the test is simple. Within a reasonable time, the DCEO must present a measurable record of completed prosecutions and convictions, particularly in complex, high-value corruption cases. It must show that arrests are no longer an end in themselves but a step in a carefully constructed legal process. Prosecutors who repeatedly lose cases through negligence must be held accountable, just as corrupt officials are expected to be.
Otherwise, “Selemo sa ho Teneha” will join the long list of hollow declarations that Basotho have learned to ignore. Anger without discipline is noise. Power without results is abuse. And an anti-corruption agency without convictions is not a watchdog — it is a dog with no teeth.
The country is indeed fed up. But patience has run out not with corruption alone — it has also run out with institutions that talk tough and deliver nothing.
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