
Billy Ntaote
A FORMER All Basotho Convention (ABC) member, Tsebang Ramoholi, says he has been receiving death threats since defecting to the Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD).
Mr Ramoholi, who is the brother of the wife of ABC leader Thomas Thabane, ’MaIsaiah, yesterday told the Sunday Express that since defecting to the LCD this past week, he had been receiving threatening phone calls from anonymous people.
He said the anonymous callers warned him to ensure LCD leader, Deputy Prime Minister Mothetjoa Metsing, has provided him adequate security “or else they would kill me”.
“One of the callers identified himself as Ananias and he asked about my whereabouts but I declined to talk any further and dropped the call,” Mr Ramoholi said.
Mr Ramoholi said he suspected the calls were be made by some people with whom he differed politically.
He said he has since reported the matter to the LCD deputy leader Tšeliso Mokhosi who is also Defence and National Security minister.
Mr Ramoholi also addressed a press conference yesterday where he said he decided to abandon the ABC because of its failures as a party and during its time as part of the government to address issues of national interest.
He said Dr Thabane’s tenure as prime minister had been short-lived due to ‘Ma-Isaiah’s “tendency to meddle in government business”.
“Today, people in the ABC are denied access to Ntate Thabane because of my sister who actually abused her position while the ABC was part of the first coalition government. She used even her position to secure my brother a uniform tender in the army,” said Mr Ramoholi.
“She was running the government by remote control and even influenced the awarding of government tenders.
“Recently she insulted army commander Lieutenant-General Tlali Kamoli over the Lesotho Defence Force’s failure to pay my brother on time because she has vested interests in that business.
“Even the ABC’s deputy leader Tlali Khasu has been suspended due to my sister’s influence.”
Mr Khasu was suspended from the ABC National Executive Committee for three months in September this year for allegedly castigating Dr Thabane during a radio programme.
Mr Ramoholi said Mr Khasu’s only crime was that he had shown concern over ‘Ma-Isaiah’s constant meddling in party affairs.
He also said such was the “shambolic state” of the ABC that the party had now gone five years without a youth league.
Mr Ramoholi said by contrast, Mr Metsing had “empathy and leadership skills” adding the LCD was not fraught with divisions. He said those attributes had attracted him to the party.
However, ABC spokesperson Tefo Mapesela dismissed Mr Ramoholi’s allegations as unfounded, saying he had not been a paid up member for the 10 months that preceded his departure.
“Ramoholi’s departure is good riddance to our party as he had become a stumbling block to many people in Mokhotlong who wanted to join the party because he was always insulting them,” Mr Mapesela said.
“He is a government official from the Mokhotlong district hospital and he has a very chequered history of ill-treating patients due to their political affiliations. He was never a good member of our party.
“I wonder how he got to know the things he claims to have been the policies of our government towards the army. They are false accusations intended to taint our image,” said Mr Mapesela, adding Mr Ramoholi’s personal differences with his sister should not be associated with the ABC as an organisation.