Caswell Tlali
MASERU — The main opposition Democratic Congress (DC) has lashed out at the government for pardoning “fugitives who were living in self-imposed exile” in South Africa.
The DC says the law should be allowed to take its course on fugitives who were pardoned by the government last week.
The DC general secretary, Ralechate ’Mokose, told the Sunday Express on Friday that the government has “arrested the legal process of law” by pardoning the fugitives who were awaiting extradition in South Africa.
Last week Justice Minister Haae Phoofolo, a renowned human rights lawyer, announced in the media that Litšitso Sekamane, Thabiso Mahase, ’Malefa Mapheleba, famo artist Rethabile Mokete, Lefa Ramantsoe and Tlala Letšolo had been granted pardon.
Sekamane and Mahase were allegedly linked with the attacks on ministers’ residences and disarming soldiers during post-election political disturbances in June 2007.
Sekamane is a former MP and commander of the now defunct Lesotho Liberation Army (LLA) which was a military wing of the exiled Basutoland Congress Party in the 1970s and 80s.
Mahase was also an LLA member.
Mapheleba was wanted for allegedly helping former police officer, Phakiso Molise, escape from police custody in 2004.
Molise was later convicted and imprisoned for leading a police strike that resulted in the fatal shooting of senior officers at the Maseru Central Charge Office in 1994.
Mapheleba fled to South Africa after her release from police custody.
She claimed that the police had tortured her.
She fled the country while the prosecution was preparing to put her on trial.
Famo guru Mokete, popularly known as Mosotho Chakela, faced charges that were never specified by the police.
He is currently in South Africa.
The DC says these people were supposed to be charged and appear before courts instead of being pardoned without following the law.
“These people had run away from this country because they did not want to be arrested and charged before our courts hence why we applied to the South African courts for them to be extradited,” ’Mokose said.
“To the best of my knowledge they were waiting to be extradited so that they would face justice like anybody who is suspected of committing a crime,” he said.
“It defies logic that all of a sudden the government says they are pardoned.”
’Mokose said he did not have the details of the pardon but felt that the law has been violated.
The law that governs pardons is section 101 of the Constitution and the Pardons Act No. 7 of 1996.
The Constitution says the King may “grant to any person convicted of any offence under the law of Lesotho a pardon, either free or subject to lawful conditions”.
It further says the King may grant respite “either indefinite or for a specified period, of the execution of any punishment imposed on that person for such an offence”.
Police spokesperson ’Mantolo Mothibeli says none of the pardoned people has ever appeared before court to answer any charge.
“To the best of my knowledge all the people you have mentioned are still at large except one of them, Mr Litšitso Sekamane, who has surrendered himself at the police headquarters,” Mothibeli said.
“None of them has ever appeared in court,” she said.
Lawyer Zwelakhe Mda told this paper yesterday, commenting on the pardons procedure not specifically on these cases, that “it is impossible to pardon anybody who is not guilty”.
“A court convicts a guilty person and according to section 12 of the constitution a person is presumed innocent until he is proven guilty by a competent court of law,” Mda said.
“This means that you cannot pardon someone who has not appeared before court and found guilty. A person who has not appeared before court is innocent,” he said.
These people could not have been pardoned under the Pardons Act either, because they do not fit the description of the people eligible.
The Act grants a pardon to a person who “may be liable for criminal prosecution for or on account of or in respect of any act, matter or thing done or purported to be done during the period 27th March 1993 to 31st December, 1995 by such person in the execution or purported execution of his duty or in the pursuit of any political objective”.
In a case involving members of the Lesotho Defence Force in July 2004 High Court judge Justice Semapo Peete said “procedurally and jurisprudentially a pardon is a plea to a charge — it must in ordinary circumstances be raised between an arrest and arraignment because its consequence, if successful, is to quash the indictment”.
Justice Peete was making this remark in reference to the Pardons Act.
He said eligible people for pardon under this Act are LDF soldiers, the police, prison warders, National Security Service agents, LLA members and any other armed group pursuing political ends.