• Kamoli ordered soldiers to “teach police a lesson that they will never be equal to the army”,
• attempted coup was Thabane’s punishment for firing Kamoli, DPP says
• raid on police stations was also meant to confiscate dockets relating to Kamoli’s previous cases.

Mohalenyane Phakela

FORMER Lesotho Defence Force (LDF) commander, Tlali Kamoli, planned and executed the 30 August 2014 attempted coup to punish then Prime Minister Thomas Thabane for firing him from his post a day earlier.

Lieutenant General (Lt-Gen) Kamoli then instructed soldiers to “take advantage of Mr Thabane’s trust in them” to take over State House, detain him and his then coalition partner Thesele ‘Maseribane and former Police Commissioner Khothatso Tšooana in separate rooms. Their telephones were to be confiscated and thereafter Lt-Gen Kamoli would show up at the State House to frogmarch them to His Majesty King Letsie III. It is not clear what was supposed to happen once they got the King’s residence.

As part of the attempted coup, Lt-Gen Kamoli ordered army attacks on police stations in and around Maseru to “teach them a lesson that they will never be equal to the army”.

All these details are contained in the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Hlalefang Motinyane’s answering affidavit filed in opposition to Lt-Gen Kamoli and others’ High Court application to stop their treason and murder trial.

Lt-Gen Kamoli has been charged alongside Movement for Economic Change (MEC) leader Selibe Mochoboroane, Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD) leader Mothetjoa Metsing and Captain Litekanyo Nyakane.

Two other soldiers, Lance Corporals Motloheloa Ntsane and Leutsoa Motsieloa, were spared the treason charges. They have only been charged with murder and attempted murder alongside Lt-Gen Kamoli and others.

Despite being charged, Mr Metsing has never appeared in court since the trial began in December 2021. This amid indications that he has skipped the country. His no-show prompted the presiding judge, Chief Justice Sakoane Sakoane, to issue a warrant for his arrest on 6 December 2021.

When the trial was supposed to get underway on 13 December 2021, Messrs Metsing and Mochoboroane’s lawyer, Motiea Teele, filed a request for further particulars in relation to the charges. He subsequently filed an application to quash the charges against Mr Mochoboroane on 11 January 2022. Other lawyers representing the other accused persons also joined the application to quash the charges. The other defence lawyers are Advocates Letuka Molati who represents Lt-Gen Kamoli; Kabelo Letuka who represents Captain Nyakane; Lepeli Molapo who represents Lance Corporal Ntsane and Napo Mafaesa who represents Lance Corporal Motsieloa.

Among other things, the accused want the trial to be stopped on the grounds that the treason and murder charges stem from a lawful operation against the police which was conducted by the army. They argue that the operation was lawful as it was ordered by Lt-Gen Kamoli who they say was still the legitimate LDF commander because the King had allegedly not signed any document firing him.

Therefore, the charges are only meant to prejudice or embarrass them, they argue.

Mr Metsing was deputy prime minister at the time of the attempted coup while current Development Planning Minister, Mr Mochoboroane, was Communications, Science and Technology Minister and LCD secretary general.

Lt-Gen Kamoli had been fired by Mr Thabane from his post as army commander on 29 August 2014 before orchestrating the attempted coup allegedly with the support of Messrs Metsing, Mochoboroane, Captain Nyakane and Lance Corporals Ntsane and Motsieloa. Messrs Thabane and Metsing had fallen out with the latter alleging he was not being consulted on key decisions.

The murder case is in connection with the fatal shooting of Police Sub-Inspector Mokheseng Ramahloko which occurred during the attempted coup when soldiers under the command of Lt-Gen Kamoli raided police stations to disarm police officials said to have been loyal to Mr Thabane.

In her opposing papers to the application to quash the treason and murder charges, DPP Motinyane argues that Lt-Gen Kamoli had been fired and a gazette and a letter to that effect had been issued by Mr Thabane on 29 August 2014.

She says that Mr Metsing, who was in Leribe on 29 August 2014, immediately rushed to Maseru after receiving news that Mr Thabane had fired Lt-Gen Kamoli. She says Mr Metsing engaged in several phone calls with LCD deputy leader, Tšeliso Mokhosi, and Lt-Gen Kamoli while on the way to Maseru.

Mr Metsing is said to have been aggrieved that he was not even consulted by Mr Thabane before the latter fired Lt-Gen Kamoli. Mr Metsing is also said to have been aggrieved by the Lesotho Mounted Police Service (LMPS)’s refusal to grant his party supporters permission to stage a protest march in Maseru. The march had been slated for 1 September 2014 but the police refused to authorise it on the grounds that it could worsen the instability which was affecting the country at the time.

“The fifth accused (Metsing), who had been in Tsikoane, Leribe, on 29 August 2014, where he attended a feast, became aware of the termination of the first accused (Kamoli)’s commission as commander of the LDF during the afternoon of 29 August 2014, after which he returned to Maseru,” DPP Motinyane states in her court papers.

“On his way to Maseru, he (Metsing) engaged in numerous telephone calls, one of which was with Tšeliso Mokhosi, during which conversation he lamented that he had not been consulted on the decision to terminate the commission of the first accused as commander of the LDF.

“Shortly after his arrival in Maseru between 18h00 and 19h00, the self-same day (on 29 August 2014), the fifth accused (Metsing) telephonically communicated with the first accused (Kamoli) using the telephone of a member of his security detail.”

DPP Motinyane states that Lt-Gen Kamoli then held a meeting with senior LDF officers. He allegedly told them that he had received an intelligence from then Military Intelligence director, Tumo Lekhooa, to the effect that the police were planning to give Mr Thabane’s All Basotho Convention (ABC) youths guns to shoot members of Mr Metsing’s LCD who intended to stage a protest march on 1 September 2014.

Lt-Gen Kamoli had then said the LDF had to launch an operation to foil the alleged police plans, DPP Motinyane says. Lt-Gen Kamoli had then ordered the soldiers to attack police stations to disarm the police and also teach them a lesson that they were not equal to the army.

“It was only after the first and fifth accused’s telephonic discussion that the first accused (Kamoli) during the late evening of 29 August 2014, called a meeting with some senior members of the LDF. He informed the meeting of a purported intelligence report received from Major Tumo Lekhooa, to the effect that members of the LMPS were planning to arm youth members of the ABC to attack youth members of the LCD, during the protest of 1 September 2014.

“Thereafter, the first accused issued instructions that the Police Headquarters, Pitso Ground Police Station, Mabote Police Station and Maseru Central Police Station be forcefully occupied by members of the LDF and that the policemen be disarmed to prevent them from providing arms to the ABC youths.

“This despite the fact that the LMPS had already refused to grant the prerequisite permission for the protest march to proceed, a position the LDF had earlier publicly supported through a press release in which the LDF also called for the cancellation of the protest.

“The first accused issued instructions that the LMPS should be taught a lesson that they will never be equal to the army.”

DPP Motinyane further states that Lt-Gen Kamoli ordered the detention of Mr Thabane, Chief ‘Maseribane and Mr Tšooana in separate rooms at the State House until he (Kamoli) arrived to take them to the King.

“The first accused had instructed members of the LDF to go to State House, on the premise of them enjoying the trust of Prime Minister Thabane, where they must inform the latter that there was an ongoing operation taking place; that the Prime Minister must call Police Commissioner Tšooana and then Sport Minister, Thesele ‘Maseribane to the State House; that Prime Minister Thabane, Minister Thesele ‘Maseribane and Commissioner Tšooana must be kept in separate rooms and their telephones must be taken away; and that Commissioner Tšooana’s bodyguards be disarmed.

“The first accused had also instructed the LDF members to request the Prime Minister to call the fifth accused (Metsing) and to inform the Prime Minister that he (Kamoli) will arrive and take the Prime Minister, the fifth accused, Minister ‘Maseribane and Commissioner Tšooana to His Majesty King Letsie III. The first accused had also ordered that Prime Minister Thabane not be permitted to leave State House,” DPP Motinyane states.

She says Messrs Metsing and Mokhosi, Major Lekhooa, now deceased Major Bulane Sechele and an unnamed LDF public relations officer held a meeting to plan the operation.

“The first accused had instructed LDF members, namely, Major Lekhooa, Major Sechele and the Public Relations Officer of the LDF, to attend at the residence of the fifth accused (Metsing) where they met with the fifth and sixth accused (Mochoboroane) and Tšeliso Mokhosi. The fifth and sixth accused and Tšeliso Mokhosi subsequently met with Major Lekhooa, Major Sechele and the public relations officer of the LDF on the purported operation to be undertaken by the LDF.

“The LDF members, under the guise of the operation, during their attacks on the police station, inter alia, demanded the investigation dockets relating to the explosions that took place at Commissioner’s residence and at the residence of Prime Minster Thabane’s then girlfriend (‘Maesaiah) in January 2014, in which the first and second accused (Kamoli and Nyakane) were suspects. The LDF members also  demanded the investigation dockets relating to the fraud, corruption and money laundering against the fifth accused; demanded to know the whereabout of members of the LPMS seized with these investigations; demanded the keys to the armouries, safes and exhibit rooms of the LMPS; removed arms and ammunition from the armouries, safes and exhibit rooms of the police stations concerned, as well as arms in the possession of the policeman; subjected the members of the LMPS to brutal assaults. They blamed Prime Minister Thabane and Commissioner Tšooana for the conflict in the country and for wanting to oust the first accused from the command of the LDF.

“The LDF operation was reactionary to the termination of the commission of the first accused as commander of the LDF.        All of the above was conducted with the sole aim of overthrowing the government,” DPP Motinyane states.

It is not clear when the application to quash the charges will be heard. It had initially been pencilled in for tomorrow but Justice Sakoane will be interviewing the candidates who were recently shortlisted for the eight vacant judges’ posts.