Mosito cleans house at NUL
…reinstates suspended registrar
Hopolang Mokhopi
PROFESSOR Kananelo Mosito took less than 48 hours to begin dismantling his predecessor’s decisions at the National University of Lesotho (NUL), reinstating suspended Registrar Liteboho Maqalika-Lerotholi and stripping the acting Registrar of her powers.
Prof Mosito resumed duties as acting Vice-Chancellor on Tuesday, a day after the Court of Appeal cleared his path back to campus. By Wednesday he had revoked Ms Maqalika-Lerotholi’s suspension and terminated the acting appointment of Dr Lipalesa Mathe, who had run the Registrar’s office in her absence.
Both moves reverse decisions taken by the administration that removed him – and both were made on an authority that is, for now, temporary. The Court of Appeal did not find in Prof Mosito’s favour on the merits. It held that the NUL Council had breached an interim order and declared its subsequent acts ineffective while that order stood. The Council’s substantive appeals are set down for October.
In a letter to Dr Mathe on Wednesday, Prof Mosito said her acting appointment had existed only because the substantive Registrar could not serve.
“Your acting appointment arose from, and was necessitated by, the temporary inability of the substantive Registrar to discharge the functions of her office during her precautionary suspension,” he wrote.
“The circumstance which necessitated your acting appointment has accordingly ceased to exist.”
Invoking section 17(4) of the National University of Lesotho Order 1992, Prof Mosito terminated the appointment “with immediate effect” and “for the purpose of restoring orderly and efficient administration of the University”.
Dr Mathe was ordered to stop exercising the Registrar’s powers at once and to hand over university records, files, access rights, keys and other property to Ms Maqalika-Lerotholi. Her substantive employment is unaffected and she returns to her post as Senior Assistant Registrar (Academic).
Ms Maqalika-Lerotholi was suspended on 11 May 2026 by then Vice-Chancellor Professor Isaac Olusola Fajana, weeks after Prof Mosito’s own suspension as Pro-Vice-Chancellor. Prof Fajana said she would face disciplinary proceedings over allegations of misconduct, insubordination and conduct prejudicial to the interests of the university.
However, it is not clear whether the disciplinary process is dead.
Ms Maqalika-Lerotholi had been fighting the process itself. Appearing before the disciplinary committee on 1 July, she objected that all three members – chairperson Shale Shale, Phakiso Mochochoko and Moteka Mohale – were men, which she argued breached NUL’s own Gender Equality and Equity Policy (2024–2029) and constitutional guarantees of equality. She asked that the constitutional questions be referred to the High Court. The committee dismissed both the objection and the referral on 10 July, holding it had no jurisdiction to refer. She filed urgent review proceedings on 17 July. That case remains pending.
She has been widely regarded within the university as aligned with Prof Mosito through the leadership fight, a characterisation both have disputed.
Prof Mosito’s return followed a judgment by Justices Petrus Damaseb, Johann van der Westhuizen and Moneuoa Kopo, which nullified Professor Motlatsi Molati’s appointment as acting Vice-Chancellor and the Council’s 2 August termination of Prof Mosito’s Pro-Vice-Chancellor contract, two years before it was due to expire.
The dispute began when the Council moved to recruit Prof Fajana’s successor before his contract expired on 31 July 2026. Prof Mosito challenged the process, and on 1 June Acting Justice of Appeal Phillip Musonda froze the recruitment and ordered that the statutory succession be preserved. When the vacancy arose, Prof Mosito was locked out of campus and the Council installed Prof Molati instead.
Writing for the Court of Appeal, Justice Damaseb found the Council had failed to comply with paragraph (e) of the 1 June order. But the court declined to hold anyone in contempt, saying the breach “does not compel the further penal conclusion that the respondents acted wilfully and mala fide” – while making clear this did “not validate the conduct”.
Ms Maqalika-Lerotholi, Dr Mathe and Council’s chairperson Dr Khabele Matlosa could not be reached for comment.
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