…party wants former premier to return government vehicles saying they expose him to danger
Keiso Mohloboli
All Basotho Convention (ABC) supporters have bought exiled party leader Thomas Thabane three cars to ensure he does not use government vehicles, which the party says are compromising his security.
According to ABC chairman Motlohi Maliehe, the party wants Dr Thabane to relinquish the two government vehicles in his possession “because we have realised our enemies have still not abandoned the plot to kill him and are using the cars to find out where he is”.
Mr Maliehe, who said he could not reveal the models of the vehicles or when exactly they were bought “for security reasons”, further told the Sunday Express that the Lesotho government managed to track Dr Thabane to his hideout in South Africa “because of those two vehicles”.
The former Justice and Correctional Service minister said although Dr Thabane was entitled to government transport as part of his retirement package as former premier, the ABC had decided he should return them “because they are exposing him to his enemies”.
Mr Maliehe said the fact that government now knows where he stays, meant the ABC leader—who fled the country on 11 May this year claiming he had been alerted of a plot to kill him by some Lesotho defence Force members—was no longer safe.
His whereabouts, Mr Maliehe added, were supposed to be a closely-guarded secret, which he said was no longer the case because of the government vehicles he claimed had “trackers”.
Members of the Lesotho Mounted Police Service recently visited Dr Thabane at his hideout in South Africa to claim vehicles they said he was no longer entitled to.
Dr Thabane had been issued the vehicles when he was premier and was supposed to surrender them on vacating the post after the 28 February 2015 snap elections.
“Two weeks ago, Deputy Prime Minister and Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD) leader, Mothetjoa Metsing, was very pompous on a certain local radio station, where he was boasting that the ABC would be history by the year 2020 because he would have killed it.
“I don’t know what he really meant by that, but the ABC assumes he meant killing its leadership so that the party does not continue to grow at the LCD’s expense,” Mr Maliehe said.
“If Ntate Thabane had not been convinced that his life was in danger, he would still be here in Lesotho, in his home-country, with his family and friends. However, since he had established that he was no longer safe, he decided to run for his life, and some people are taking this for a joke.
“Our intention, as ABC members, was that immediately after buying Ntate Thabane the cars, he would surrender those from government.
“In fact, we want him to return every government car he has even though he is entitled to such a benefit, because we realised that the vehicles are leading the enemy right to his doorstep,” Mr Maliehe said.
“He is entitled to government transport as part of his retirement package, but we don’t want him to use it anymore because this makes him vulnerable.”
Asked when the ABC would be returning the vehicles after failing to surrender one of them on Wednesday because no one from the seven-party coalition government was at the Maseru Border Post to receive it, Mr Maliehe could only say “soon”.
Meanwhile, the Sunday Express could not verify Mr Maliehe’s claims with Dr Thabane as his mobile phone was not reachable.
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