- describes Adv Thoahlane’s report on the LCS as “pure lies”.
- says he “shouldn’t be crucified for befriending Thabane and Moleleki”.
Mohalenyane Phakela
THE Commissioner of the Lesotho Correctional Service (LCS), Thabang Mothepu, has come out guns blazing against the Ombudsman, Advocate Leshele Thoahlane, accusing him of misinformation and maliciously working to tarnish his reputation.
Commissioner Mothepu’s gripe with the Adv Thoahlane stems from the latter’s recent damning report which questions the legality of his 31 May 2018 appointment as the substantive head of the LCS. Prior to his appointment, Commissioner Mothepu served as the Acting Commissioner from June 2017.
The LCS boss courted controversy by making 50 promotions in the LCS in May last year and this forced some LCS officers to approach the ombudsman to complain that they were overlooked for promotions.
Adv Thoahlane, who began his inquiry in May 2018, recently released a 59-page report which states that Commissioner Mothepu and some of the senior officers were illegally promoted to their positions possibly on political grounds.
The ombudsman’s report also details how Commissioner Mothepu allegedly selected a few officers for Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) training in Zimbabwe and subsequently converted them into his bodyguards while leaving the care and security of high-profile inmates in the hands of unarmed junior officers.
Some of the high-profile inmates include the murder and attempted murder-accused former army commander Lieutenant General Tlali Kamoli and several other members of the security agencies who have been in detention since 2017 awaiting trial for various crimes. Lt-Gen Kamoli was arrested and detained in October 2017. By so doing, the ombudsman is of the view that Commissioner Mothepu may have compromised the security at the Maseru Maximum Prison.
In addition, Adv Thoahlane casts aspersions on the character of Commissioner Mothepu describing him as an immature and excitable person who is given to dramatic behaviour.
“Mothepu’s conduct during the inquiry was baffling. He was heavily guarded on the allegation that his life was in danger from the same officers who fell directly under his command. This was beyond description.
“It was not clear whether he was by nature a dramatic character or what. It was surprising that he felt threatened by his colleagues to the extent that he could not even sit among them, even with that tight security of his… This showed lack of maturity on the officer’s (Commissioner Mothepu) side,” Adv Thoahlane states in the report seen by the Lesotho Times.
And Commissioner Mothepu is far from amused by the ombudsman’s findings and unflattering opinion of his character.
Commissioner Mothepu poured his heart out to the Lesotho Times this week and expressed his “shock” at the ombudsman’s report, saying to the best of his knowledge, the ombudsman was still gathering information and could not have possibly come up with a final product when he did not have all the information.
He said he refused to furnish the ombudsman with some of the information he wanted as it was confidential and he had had a bad experience of LCS information being leaked to the media by the office of the ombudsman.
“Government institutions such as this one (the LCS) and that of the ombudsman are supposed to be in the hands of people who are entrusted not to prejudice any processes but we have seen the ombudsman acting contrary to what he is expected to do,” charged Commissioner Mothepu.
“The report is out of order because the ombudsman was misguided and it was clear he was serving someone else’s interests rather than those of his office. We told him what transpired regarding the allegations he was inquiring into but instead he decided to listen to other people who were feeding him lies.
“We had established a relationship with the ombudsman but his conduct this time was suspicious. We saw him acting contrary to the laws of his office. It is the norm that when there are complaints from the LCS to his office, these are presented in the form of a letter. And he (the ombudsman) is supposed to write back to me and attach a copy of the complaints. But instead of doing that, we were surprised when he (the ombudsman) said he was holding an inquiry.
“We have confidential information but the mere fact that the letters which we wrote (to the office of the ombudsman) would be read out on one local radio station meant that we could not release files of the employees which he demanded. We asked the ombudsman to clean up his office first before we could give him information but we were surprised by his report.”
Commissioner Mothepu also denied that he and some of the senior officers were illegally promoted, possibly on political grounds.
“Before the 2017 elections I worked at the LCS headquarters and I had no interactions with inmates therefore there is no way I could have canvassed for votes for anyone.
“On the issue of being seen driving a politician, I can say there was never a time when I took leave from my job and became someone else’s bodyguard or driver. However, it does not mean that once I assume such a position, I should become enemies with them (politicians). I reside in Ha Abia and I come from Nazareth so I cannot be crucified for befriending my neighbours Ntate (Thomas) Thabane and Ntate (Monyane) Moleleki.
“The issue of me releasing inmates illegally is a pure lie fabricated by the ombudsman and those rogue officers who fed him lies. We operate by law and it is only through a court order that we keep or release an inmate. We only check its authenticity because at times we have found some court orders to be fake.
“All the people I promoted are the best and that is why there is stability in the prisons. It does not mean that there are no possibilities of (the prisons) being attacked but we have the best people (prison officers) who are resilient. Since I assumed office there has never been any report of escapees because we have improved our skills and promoted people based on the hard work they do,” Commissioner Mothepu said.
He also denied compromising the security of the Maseru Maximum Prison by appropriating the high trained (SWAT) officers and weapons for his personal security while leaving unarmed junior officers to guard the high-profile inmates.
He said while such reports were false, he was also entitled to full protection by LCS officers who were armed from the LCS’s amoury.
“By law I have to be guarded by LCS officers who are armed from the armoury. By right I should be travelling with three cars with heavily trained and armed LCS personnel but I have been using one car.
“But it is a lie that I took specialised highly trained personnel who were trained in Zimbabwe or South Africa. Those people he is talking about are guarding inmates not me. This is evidence that the ombudsman’s report is a lie that is intended to taint my image. The entire report is full of malicious lies.”
Commenting on Commissioner Mothepu in the section of the report titled ‘Ombudsman’s Observations’, Adv Thoahlane said “it was not clear how people who went for SWAT training were nominated”.
“The ombudsman does not understand why a (SWAT) training that seemed to be so important to the LCS could be for the chosen few. The ombudsman has not been convinced that the (SWAT) training was for the purposes of reinforcing the security of the institution and not for individual officers. It became apparent that in many instances, the security for high-profile inmates was still provided by junior officers while most of the SWAT trained officers were in Mothepu’s escort.
“A live demonstration of this was the convoy of security he (Commissioner Mothepu) brought to the office of the ombudsman during the inquiry. They were heavily armed and had worn masks as if they were on the battlefield. In the circumstance it is not easy to deny the allegation by the LCS officers that the armoury was empty as the SWAT trained staff had taken all weapons.”
But this week, Commissioner Mothepu told this publication that “the only reason I went to his (Ombudsman) office with heavily armed security personnel is that we learned that there was a covert plan regarding me being called to his office that day”.
He however, refused to say what the covert plan was and how it would have compromised his security.
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