…as DC insists on police boss’ ouster in exchange for its continued support for governing coalition  

Pascalinah Kabi

NEWLY promoted Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Beleme Lebajoa, has been appointed head of the powerful Criminal Investigations Department (CID).

Highly placed government sources said his appointment, barely a month after his promotion to be DCP, is to prepare him to take over the police command from Commissioner Holomo Molibeli.

Commissioner Molibeli is not wanted by Deputy Prime Minister Mathibeli Mokhothu’s Democratic Congress (DC) party. The party views him as an ABC loyalist rather a professional who can repair the image of the force which has been dented by allegations of brutality against citizens and incompetence in solving crimes. Government and DC sources said the DC has demanded his ouster as its price for its continued support for the governing coalition led by Prime Minister Moeketsi Majoro’s All Basotho Convention (ABC).

DCP Lebajoa’s appointment is with effect from 7 July 2021. He takes over DCP Paseka Mokete.

His latest appointment is confirmed in a memorandum by one Inspector Majoro to all police officers.

“It is hereby published for information of all ranks that DCP Paseka Mokete has been redeployed to the office of the DCP Finance and Infrastructure Development (FID), while DCP Beleme Lebajoa will hold the office of the DCP CID,” Inspector Majoro states in the letter.

DCP Lebajoa’s appointment follows hotly on the heels of his 2 June 2021 promotion to DCP by then acting Police and Public Safety Minister, Mohapi Mohapinyane.

He was previously Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP). His promotion and appointment to head the CID are part of processes to prepare him to take over Commissioner Molibeli, the well-placed sources say.

“Lebajoa is going to become the commissioner of police very soon. The government is preparing to appoint him as soon as Holomo leaves as per the demands of the DC,” a source said in an interview with the Sunday Express this week.

“This (appointment to head the CID) is just an administrative job to prepare him to take over when Holomo leaves the police service. Preparations are underway to give Holomo a soft landing somewhere else and once those are completed, Lebajoa will be appointed in his place,” the source said.

Another government official concurred, saying, “the DC is still demanding that Commissioner Molibeli must go and we are making preparations for DCP Lebajoa to take over”.

Both Commissioner Molibeli and DCP Lebajoa were not reachable on their mobile phones for comment. Police minister Lepota Sekola’s mobile phone rang unanswered yesterday.

The DC and the ABC are the two main parties in the current year-old coalition government which was recently rocked by a split in the ABC, which saw its deputy leader Nqosa Mahao and 11 legislators break away to form the Basotho Action Party (BAP) in April this year.

The ABC-led government was only saved from collapse by the DC which reiterated its commitment to seeing the government last its tenure until next year’s elections expected to be held in September 2022 earliest.

The DC’s 27 MPs are crucial to the survival of the government especially now that the ABC is only left with 35 MPs. Together the two parties have a combined 62 seats and thus only just meet the minimum seats required to form a government. Their numbers have also been boosted by the combined 18 seats of the smaller coalition partners that are mostly DC allies.

Speaking at a joint press conference with Dr Majoro at State House in Maseru in early May, Mr Mokhothu said he had no intention of abandoning the government after the ABC’s split.

He said there would be challenges along the way but together with the ABC and smaller coalition partners, they were determined to weather the storms right up to the holding of elections, expected in September next year.

But it has since emerged that behind the public display of unity, there continues to be intense lobbying by the DC for the ouster of Commissioner Molibeli as its reward for backing the ABC.

Both ABC spokesperson Montoeli Masoetsa and DC secretary general Tšitso Cheba have denied that the DC had made the ouster of Commissioner Molibeli a precondition for its continued support for the government.

Despite their denials, some senior DC officials insisted that they had demanded that the ABC begins processes to fire the police boss.

“We want Molibeli to go and we have made it very clear to the ABC that he must go,” said a DC official who spoke to the Lesotho Times in May this year. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.

“In our talks with the ABC, we made it clear that the sacking of Molibeli is a condition for our continued stay in government. They have promised to act on the matter and we are closely monitoring what will happen in the coming days and weeks.

“The Commissioner has been left to do as he pleases for far too long because of his close ties to the ABC leaders. Under his leadership, the police force has been rocked by instability and it is an open secret that the inter-ministerial committee which was tasked with investigating this instability protected him. It was an ABC committee because it was exclusively composed of ABC ministers,” the source said.

This was in reference to the inter-ministerial committee set up last August by Dr Majoro to investigate the tensions between Commissioner Molibeli and the Lesotho Mounted Police Service Staff Association (LEPOSA).

At the time LEPOSA had threatened an unprecedented mass protest to press Dr Majoro to fire Commissioner Molibeli for alleged incompetence, bias in the promotions of police officers as well as the failure to address the scourge of police brutality.

The inter-ministerial committee comprised of former Police and Public Safety Minister ‘Mamoipone Senauoane, former Defence and National Security Minister Prince Maliehe, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Kemiso Mosenene and former Justice and Law Minister Prof Mahao who was its chairperson.

Addressing the media on the committee’s report last September, Dr Majoro said the committee had found no valid grounds for the dismissal of Commissioner Molibeli.

However, the DC sources insisted that they want Molibeli fired “because the whole country has witnessed heinous acts of police brutality under his leadership.

“He has barely lifted a finger to address this issue despite the public outcry. Instead, he went after LEPOSA leaders for demanding his dismissal.”

Another source said the DC felt that allowing Commissioner Molibeli to remain in office undermines the party’s long-standing campaign against police brutality.

“When we were in opposition, we strongly condemned acts of police brutality, the wool and mohair monopoly and we demanded Ntate Thabane’s exit. When negotiating the coalition agreement, we made it clear that we will not be in the same government with Ntate Thabane as prime minister and we won that battle.

“The wool and mohair laws were subsequently amended after the formation of this government to allow more players in the sector and to allow farmers to sell their produce to whoever they wanted. The outstanding issue is that of Molibeli. Allowing him to stay on will make us look like hypocrites who used the police brutality campaign as a means to an end. We can compromise on other issues but Molibeli has to go,” said the source.

Another source concurred, saying the Molibeli issue was still a “top secret” to give the ABC time to find ways to comply with the DC’s demand. The source the ABC was indebted to him because he played a key role in the collapse of the previous Thomas Thabane-led government.

He made Mr Thabane’s position untenable after he named him as the key suspect in the 14 June 2017 murder of his ex-wife, Lipolelo.

Commissioner Molibeli had even said they would ensure Mr Thabane would be tried alongside his wife, ‘Maesaiah but this has not happened to date. The police management and the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Hlalefang Motinyane have blamed each other for the inordinate delays in trying Mr Thabane.

“This (Molibeli ouster demand) is a closely guarded secret. No one was supposed to know about it because the ABC needs time to find the best possible way of engineering Molibeli’s departure. It is not that simple to get rid of him because he played a significant role in the collapse of Ntate Thabane’s government and the advent of the current government.

“But we want Molibeli to pay for all that has happened under his leadership. We cannot continue pretending that things are normal in the police force. Molibeli is failing to address those challenges and he must make way for someone who will stabilise the police and decisively deal with police brutality,” the source said.