Mohalenyane Phakela
‘EXPELLED’ All Basotho Convention (ABC) Deputy Leader Professor Mahao and his four allies have launched a fresh High Court bid to have their 17 June 2019 expulsion from the party nullified. They were expelled by party leader and Prime Minister Thomas Thabane on the grounds of alleged insubordination after they held constituency rallies in apparent defiance of Dr Thabane’s express orders barring them from doing so.
The four co-applicants are fellow ABC’s national executive committee (NEC) members, Lebohang Hlaele (secretary general), Samuel Rapapa (chairperson), Montoeli Masoetsa (spokesperson) and his deputy Matebatso Doti.
Dr Thabane and remnants of the party’s NEC loyal to the former recently announced ‘replacements’ for the ‘expelled’ quintet.
The quintet filed the application on Thursday. They want an order revoking their expulsion from the ABC and they also want Dr Thabane to be interdicted from making decisions on behalf of the ABC without the involvement of the ABC’s NEC.
Finance Minister Moeketsi Majoro was appointed deputy leader replacing Prof Mahao.
Others who were also appointed are Kemiso Mosenene (as chairperson in place of Mr Rapapa), Sentle Rabale (spokesperson in place of Mr Masoetsa) and Joel Mohale as deputy spokesperson in place of Ms Doti. The four appointments are with effect from 9 August 2019 while the post of secretary general made “vacant” by the “expulsion” of Mr Hlalele, will be filled in due course.
“The four vacancies have been filled by those who came second (at the ABC’s February 2019 elections) to those who were elected to those positions. The new appointments were made following the expulsion of the members who were elected to those positions due to their behaviour which jeopardised the party,” pro-Thabane ABC’s deputy secretary general Nkaku Kabi stated in a circular to party structures announcing the ‘new appointments’.
But in their latest application, Prof Mahao and others are seeking an interim order staying their expulsion and to interdict Dr Majoro and other ‘newly appointed NEC members’ from exercising their roles as members of the NEC pending the finalisation of the case.
They want the “operation and execution of the first respondent (Dr Thabane)’s order taken on 17 June 2019 purporting to expel the applicants as members of the ABC to be stayed pending finalisation of this matter”.
“The fourth and fifth respondents (Dr Majoro and Mr Mosenene respectively) (must) be interdicted, pending outcome hereof, from holding themselves as members of the NEC and discharging any duties within the organisation (ABC) as members of the NEC.”
In terms of the final orders, the quintet want “a declaratory order declaring the decision of the first respondent (Dr Thabane) taken on 17 June 2019 expelling the applicants as members of the ABC null and void”.
“An order declaring that the first respondent as the leader of the ABC does not have the power to expel any member of the ABC without ratification by the NEC.”
They also want Dr Thabane to be “interdicted from taking unilateral decisions and interfering with the affairs of the ABC without involvement of the full contingent of the NEC and that he be interdicted from instructing any member any member of the ABC and its NEC to discharge functions of the offices held by the applicants”.
The five first challenged their dismissal on 22 June 2019 but the application was dismissed by the High Court bench comprising of Justices Thamsanqa Nomngcongo, Sakoane Sakoane and Moroke Mokhesi on a technicality, saying it had not been properly filed before the court.
Reading the verdict on behalf of the court bench, Justice Mokhesi said the prayers for the setting aside of their expulsions could not be granted as they had been sought in an interlocutory application to have Dr Thabane held in contempt of court for his alleged failure to abide by a 12 June 2019 High Court judgement declaring that they had been properly elected into the ABC’s NEC at the party’s February 2019 elective conference.
“It will be observed that this application being for committal for contempt of court, is an interlocutory application, and as such this court has to deal with it only that way.
“It will be observed that when the applicants launched this application, they clubbed it together with a panoply of substantive reliefs which are foreign to application number 47 of June 2019 (which confirmed the applicants as the legitimate ABC’s NEC). Some of the reliefs sought were for the review of the party leader’s decision to expel applicants and an interdict against the party leader taking unilateral decisions without the NEC’s involvement.
“This is highly irregular. These substantive reliefs are self-standing and have nothing to do with the (initial) application to annul the election of the NEC. The decision of the applicants to combine this interlocutory application with self-standing reliefs makes a mockery of interlocutory applications…Any relief which is opportunistically included in the interlocutory application should be a matter for another court not this court.”
The High Court also dismissed Prof Mahao and his co-applicants’ application to have Dr Thabane held in contempt of court for allegedly violating the High Court’s 12 June 2019 judgement declaring that they had been properly elected into the ABC’s NEC at the party’s February 2019 elective conference.
However, the High Court ruled Dr Thabane could not have been in contempt of court because the court had never directed him on how to act in relation to the ABC issues.
“What this court did in the main was merely to declare that certain individuals were winners in the race into the NEC of the ABC. Whether or not the party leader (Dr Thabane) engages in efforts to frustrate the results of the elective conference, it is not a matter to be enforced by means of committal for contempt of court because there was no order directing him to desist from doing what he is being accused of doing. It follows that the application for committal for contempt of court is ill-conceived and falls to be dismissed,” the High Court ruled.
Shortly after the delivery of the verdict, Prof Mahao told his supporters that they would file a fresh application challenging their expulsion from the party.
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