Pascalinah Kabi
AN Alliance of Democrats (AD) activist, Seeiso Letsie, has accused senior AD official and Home Affairs Minister, Mokhele Moletsane, of using soldiers to fight his opponents within the ruling party.
This after a recent incident where Mr Moletsane’s bodyguards allegedly assaulted Mr Letsie’s sister in a scuffle that ensued after a dispute between the latter and the bodyguards over parking space in Maseru’s industrial area.
Mr Letsie said the attack was probably due to the bad blood between him and Mr Moletsane after the former campaigned to ensure that Mr Moletsane did not win the secretary general’s post which was eventually won by his rival, Gender Minister, Mahali Phamotse, in the contest for the post of AD secretary general.
Mr Moletsane who had served in that post in an interim capacity, was beaten by Dr Phamotse at the AD’s 2018 elective conference. In the aftermath of the AD elections- according to Mr Letsie- he and Mr Moletsane met at a football match where the minister made it clear that he did not like him at all.
And Mr Letsie believes that Mr Moletsane’s soldier bodyguards took advantage of the recent misunderstanding between them over parking space in Maseru to assault his sister.
Mr Letsie said the bodyguards also threatened to shoot his brother.
The AD activist conceded that he was at fault for parking his vehicle in front of Mr Moletsane’s car at a local restaurant in Maseru. He said he however, explained to the minister’s bodyguards that he had done so as there was no parking space and he would quickly drive away after his passengers had used the ablution facilities at the restaurant.
“I parked my car in front of a government vehicle and at the time I didn’t even know that it belonged to Moletsane.
“But I greeted the driver and a bodyguard and explained to them that I would not say long as I had people who just wanted to use a restroom,” Mr Letsie said.
He said it only dawned on him that the government vehicle belonged to Mr Moletsane after he saw him sitting in the restaurant with another man.
He said Mr Moletsane left the restaurant shortly afterwards and he followed so that he would remove his car which was blocking the minister’s path.
He said he had problems starting his car and it was then that one of Mr Moletsane’s bodyguards approached him and accused him of blocking the minister’s path because he was fighting Mr Moletsane in the AD.
“I was travelling with my sister, wife and siblings. Moletsane’s bodyguard said to me, ‘you have blocked the way because you are fighting Moletsane’. I asked him where that was coming from. All the while Moletsane was sitting inside his vehicle.
“My sister came over to close my door which had been open and it was then that the soldier slapped her. This angered me and my brother who then approached the soldier to defend my sister. But the soldier threatened to shoot him.”
Mr Letsie said he was later advised by fellow AD members to engage the minister to amicably resolve their differences. He said his efforts were rebuffed by Mr Moletsane who rudely told him that he should not involve in issues involving soldiers as he did not work at Makoanyane barracks.
“He (Mr Moletsane) said a lot of crap before he cut the phone. I have nothing against Moletsane but it is just that I worked very hard to ensure that he didn’t win the NEC elections. But after the elections, I thought we had buried the hatchet until one day at a football match where he made it clear that he did not like me at all. But I have no problem with that as long as he doesn’t use soldiers to fight his political battles.
“He will not always be a minister and one day we will both be ordinary civilians. I can let this pass for now and then retaliate when he is no longer a minister,” Mr Letsie said.
However, Mr Moletsane denied any wrongdoing and instead praised his bodyguards for exercising restraint in the face of provocation by a “drunk Letsie”.
“I really have no interest in this issue because my bodyguards exercised a lot of restraint in a situation where Letsie and the ladies that he was with were so drunk and unruly. I am not fighting my political battles using soldiers. This is not the first time Letsie has behaved in this manner. He does this when he is drunk,” Mr Moletsane said.