HomeNewsLocalAD’s Hloaele jumps ship, joins Matekane’s RFP 

AD’s Hloaele jumps ship, joins Matekane’s RFP 

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—decision means AD’s seat contribution to coalition gvt is now negligible 

Mohloai Mpesi 

ALLIANCE of Democrats (AD)’s Malibamat?o constituency lawmaker, Mokoto Hloaele, has dumped the party for the Revolution for Prosperity (RFP). 

Mr Hloaele’s departure from the AD follows a protracted feud between him and party leader, Minister of Education and Training, Professor Ntoi Rapapa. 

Mr Hloaele crossed the floor to the RFP in parliament during its sitting on Thursday. 

Speaking to the?Sunday Express?shortly after crossing the floor, Mr Hloaele said leaving the AD was the “best decision” under the circumstances. 

Mr Hloaele is an ally of AD founding leader and former Deputy Prime Minister, Monyane Moleleki and, together with Prof Rapapa and several others, founded the AD after dumping the Democratic Congress (DC) in 2017. 

Mr Moleleki had fallen out with the DC’s founding leader, former Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili, as Mr Moleleki sought to push his agenda to replace Mr Mosisili as Prime Minister. 

Mr Moleleki was to, over time, lose popularity within the AD as Prof Rapapa’s star rose. 

Mr?Moleleki subsequently lost the party’s leadership to Prof Rapapa at its April 2023 elective conference. 

Mr Moleleki’s staunch ally, Mr Hloaele, who had sought to become his deputy leader also lost?dismally to Thabiso Lebese.  

The duo struggled to accept defeat and set on a mission to sabotage Prof Rapapa. 

They snubbed his rallies, organising their own parallel events ??whenever Prof Rapapa convened a rally. 

A case in point was Prof Rapapa’s maiden rally as AD leader in his native Mosalemane constituency shortly after the elective conference. 

Rather than attend that rally, Mr Moleleki would opt for a picnic at Masianokeng, organised by AD youth who also refused to recognise Prof Rapapa’s authority. 

The loss had been a severe blow for Mr Moleleki, who had been in congress politics for decades and, at the helm of the AD for seven years since its 2017 formation. 

Mr Hloaele’s defection to the RFP means the AD’s seats in the National Assembly have been slashed to three from four. Still, the defection alone does not affect the coalition in terms of numbers since Mr Hloaele has gone to one of its member parties.? But overally, the AD’s contribution to the coalition in terms of seats is now very negligible. 

Prof Rapapa holds one of the three remaining AD seats with two others held by Mr Moleleki himself and another by ‘Maboiketlo Maliehe. Ms Maliehe is rumoured to not see eye to eye with Prof Rapapa while Mr Moleleki backed an attempt to oust Mr Matekane as Prime Minister in a no confidence motion in October 2023. The two cannot thus be relied upon to support the coalition, meaning the AD’s contribution to the coalition falls to a miniscule one seat held by Prof Rapapa himself. 

Mr Hloaele told the?Sunday Express?that after Professor Rapapa was elected AD leader, he did not make efforts to convene a rally in the Malibamats’o constituency, one of two constituencies the AD won in the 2022 plebiscite. The other was won by Prof Rapapa in his Mosalemane constituency. The AD was then allocated two proportional representation seats to bring its contribution tally into the current coalition to four seats. ? 

Even though Mr Moleleki was party leader at the time of the formation of the coalition government in 2022, he did not make it into cabinet, preferring to second Prof Rapapa, to give the new coalition a fresh face. Prof Rapapa subsequently won the party’s leadership race a year later. 

Mr Hloaele is aggrieved that Prof Rapapa did not organise a rally in Malibamats’o after he became party leader. 

Instead, he had sent his “troops” to “attack and badmouth” him in his own constituency, Mr Hloaele claimed. ? 

“Two years into government and well into his leadership, the AD’s Malibamat?o constituency members and supporters were wondering why the leader had not visited them. They were worried because that constituency is ours. As such, the expectation would be that the leader would want to visit,” Mr Hloaele said. 

“They wondered why the leader did not care to visit them when Malibamats’o is the AD’s second constituency. 

“After he (Prof Rapapa) was elected AD leader, he convened a rally in his own constituency… But he does not say anything about his other constituency, Malibamat?o?” 

Compounding matters, Mr Hloaele claimed, was Prof Rapapa’s audacity to subsequently convene the rally in Malibamat?o without even informing him as its elected legislator. 

“On the 3rd?of May 2024, my leader released his troops to Malibamat?o to attack the AD MP, who is myself.? That was because he had apparently heard rumours that I was going elsewhere, to join another political party,” Mr Hloaele said. 

“I was even posted on social media platforms as having joined another party, which was not true then. The idea was to badmouth me, portraying me as a person who fights with his leader. 

“The attack on the 3rd?of May, came after a decision had been made, that the AD would have a rally in the Malibamat?o constituency on the 26th?of May 2024. I did not know anything about the rally as the constituency’s MP,” he said. 

“The rally was planned and concluded without my knowledge. I did not even attend that rally. It was so painful for me to watch. Relations had completely shattered between me and the AD leader. For the sake of the party, I and others who shared similar sentiments, decided that I should jump the AD ship and join the RFP.” 

While Mr Hloaele admitted that he was part of a group of MPs who attempted to overthrow Mr Matekane’s government on the 16th?of October 2023 via a no-confidence vote, he had now decided to work for the lead coalition government party and support the Prime Minister. He said it had long been his desire to join the RFP. He had even tried when the party was first formed in March 2022. ? 

“This issue dates back from when RFP was formed. I received calls from my native Malibamat?o constituency, that we should join RFP. We loved their manifesto, but the problem was that RFP did not want people who had been in parliament before. They wanted only the new stock,” he said. 

“So, we decided to wait until after the elections and approach them with a constituency…..” 

Even though the plan was not immediately executed after the elections and other things had subsequently transpired, the time had come to put his constituency into the RFP fold, he said. 

Therefore, he said, crossing the floor “was only a continuation of my endeavour to become part of RFP”. 

He insisted if the RFP had allowed former MPs to join it and contest the October 7, 2022 elections on its behalf, he would have joined it from the onset. ?? 

While he had supported the move to oust Mr Matekane, it should not distract from the fact that he had always wanted to be part of the RFP family, Mr Hloaele said. ? 

“So what has happened today is only a continuation of a long held intention. I must also state that I have not done this on my own. The 

Malibamat?o community is part of the decision…,” he claimed. 

Mr Hloaele is not only the prominent AD member to ditch the party. In March this year, two prominent members; former High Commissioner of Lesotho to the United Kingdom, Rethabile Marumo, and the former Permanent Representative of Lesotho to the United Nations in Geneva, Refiloe Litjobo, left the AD for the RFP. They were unveiled during the RFP’s second year anniversary at the Maseru Racecourse the same month. 

?Other Moleleki allies who left the party are Marooe Rabatloung, the AD’s Thaba-Bosiu constituency secretary, as well as ‘Makabelo Mokone, Mantsatsi Moleleki, Makoae Seboholi and Sajene Buthelezi, all officials of Likotsi, Matala, Thabana-Morena and Mekaling constituencies respectively.? 

In an interview with the?Sunday Express?then, Mr Litjobo said the AD was no longer habitable. 

“A political party must feel like home – habitable, warm and welcoming to everyone,” he said. ? 

“In politics some people move in, and others move out depending on how the temperatures changes. ? 

“So, when you see people living this party in high numbers, it is because the temperature is either too hot or too cold. It is no longer habitable for them to stay.” 

 

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