PS wants more funding for prison service

Billy Ntaote

The Ministry of Justice and Correctional Services Principal Secretary (PS), Teboho Mohlomi, has urged government to grant his department more funding to enable the refurbishment of its dilapidated prisons.

Mr Mohlomi made the remark when addressing guests attending a pass-out parade of 116 Lesotho Correctional Services (LCS) recruits at the Correctional Staff Training School in Maseru on Friday.

The PS said there was need to ensure a balance of funding granted to government institutions whose key functions were the delivery of justice to Basotho.

“Last week, we were forced to transfer all the inmates who were at Mafeteng Correctional Facility to Mohale’s Hoek and Maseru due to the dilapidated state of the institution, which ended up crumbling.

“It would be very much appreciated if our government was to balance the support granted to all the law-enforcement agencies for effective service delivery,” Mr Mohlomi said.

“Our facilities are from the old days and very dilapidated; some of the infrastructure we have is no longer fit for human occupation. Last week, our Mafeteng facility had to be shut down completely after there was some water-leakage and the building collapsed.

“We ended up transferring all the inmates, some of whom are still appearing before the courts, to our correctional facility in Mohale’s Hoek district, while others were taken to Maseru.

“This development is now going to cost the relatives of the inmates more, each time they want to visit and support them with the required basic necessities as they serve their sentences.”

Mr Mohlomi also said apart from rebuilding the facilities, there was need for LCS employees’ salaries to be reviewed so they could be at part with those of their colleagues from other law-enforcement agencies such as the Lesotho Mounted Police Service and Lesotho Defence Force.

“Such a review would ensure that the salaries are at par with those of their counterparts in other security agencies, such as the police and army, and ensure high morale among the staff,” he said.