—As Mosito appears to cast himself between a rock and a very hard place
Opinion: By Investigations Desk
It is almost impossible to fathom. It sounds and looks like fiction. But it still happened.
On Boxing Day 2024, when most would have been relaxing and recovering from the hangovers of the previous day, when all courts were completely shut, a mysterious development unfolded at Lesotho’s Court of Appeal in the long running M280 million investment story of Platcorp Holdings Limited (Platcorp).
In an unprecedented and wholly insidious arrangement, the Court of Appeal was opened on Boxing Day to surreptitiously sneak an appeal, whose sole treacherous purpose, appears to have been to assist Motena Lishea and her lawyer turned husband, Tsenase Tsenase, gain access to the M280 million that they ridiculously claim to be theirs but High Court Judge Moroke Mokhesi had ruled should be returned to its rightful owners, Platcorp.
This whole story has been serialized in these pages before. We shall not seek to repeat the full details.
Suffice to say Platcorp invested more than M280 million into Platinum Credit before things turned sour between the owners of Platcorp and their local partner, Motena Lishea, into that micro lending company
After a series of legal battles, mostly won by Platcorp, Judge Mokhesi eventually ruled on 17 September 2025 that the money should be returned to its rightful owners, Platcorp.
The order was executed and an initial M210 million was put in Platcorp Lesotho lawyers’ Webber Newdigate’s Trust account for onward transmission to Platcorp’s holding account in South Africa. But the DCEO, under the leadership of the now under-fire Knorx Molelle, which had sat on fraud allegations raised against Lishea by Platcorp for more than a year, would have none of it.
It immediately sprung to action, obtaining an order stopping the money from being transferred to Platcorp. It demanded that the money be returned to Platinum Credit’s account in which it had laid frozen for over a year. Molelle then raised the spurious allegation that the money had been “laundered”, though not a shred of evidence has been proffered to support that claim. Suddenly, and much to their chagrin and surprise, the owners of Platcorp, who run an international financial services investment empire, that has issued loans worth over M350 billion over the years across Africa, transmogrified from being victors in a civil court to criminal suspects over the same facts. The DCEO obtained a further judgment from Justice Masefaro Mahase, cementing its claim that the money should not be repatriated to Platcorp.
As of writing this story, cases remain pending in the Appeal Court to determine the dispute between Lishea, Tsenase and the Platcorp owners and in the criminal courts to determine whether the money was indeed “laundered”.
And this is what makes the events of Boxing Day 2024 all the more puzzling. Despite there not being any urgent business involved as all the matters pertaining to this case remain pending, Platcorp’s lawyers were corralled to appear before court for an “urgent” appeal by Lishea, Tsenase and Platinum Credit to reverse Judge Mokhesi’s order. Why such an appeal suddenly became so necessary and so urgent to require judicial officials to abandon their holidays is as astonishing as it is inexplicable.
The very essence of the appeal as per the notice of motion itself is equally puzzling. All the orders freezing the money and ensuring that it does not get to Platcorp, at least until all the pending disputes are resolved, remain in place.
The only reasonable conclusion to reach is that all involved – including Lishea and Tsenase’s proxies in the judiciary, had been hell bent on facilitating a default judgment that Lishea could have used to access the frozen money, which she has repeatedly been trying to lay her hands on. The Lesotho Times has extensively reported on a conspiracy to ensure that Platcorp is deprived of its money. Those involved want it to stay with Lishea who will then share the spoils with whoever would have assisted her with achieving her nefarious mission. Her shenanigans with the Platcorp investment have already cost 200 jobs. Platcorp’s efforts to rescue both its investment and all these jobs have also fallen flat.
The irony remains that the money is claimed to have been “laundered”. If that allegation is proven, then it means the M280 million must all be forfeited to the State and not given to Lishea. But things have become more fuzzier and Judge Mosito – by his enthusiasm to partake in stampeding the hearing of an appeal that was either not urgent or not even necessary at all – seems to have cast himself between a rock and a very hard place.
Issues are not helped by allegations that Lishea has told her acolytes that Judge Mosito is his “ally” and panacea.
In fact the whole Boxing Day events now seem like an orchestrated effort to catch Platcorp flatfooted. With everyone on holiday, the idea seems to have been to push for a default judgment to overturn Judge Mokhesi’s ruling in favour of Platcorp and enable Lishea access to the money.
Fortunately for Platcorp, its lawyers fought tooth nail and claw to keep with the pace of events. Despite being ambushed and not getting clear timelines to file their responses, they were there at the appeal court to ensure no default judgment was issued. Through their diligence, they worked overnight to forestall all the machinations to circumvent their client and argue their case.
They are vigorously opposing Lishea’s attempt to get Judge Mokhesi’s ruling overturned. The gist of their case – according to their court papers is that there was no urgency. The application was delayed for two months before the request on Boxing Day to be set down for hearing a day later on 27 December 2024, during the festive season. The DCEO’s preservation order issued on 10 October 2024 secured the funds in question, rendering the urgency moot. Simply put, there was no urgency.
PlatCorp’s lawyers also argued on the procedural issues that the Appellants failed to serve adequate notice of the hearing on 27 December 2024, breached Rule 18 of the Court of Appeal Rules, which requires two days’ notice for the filing of answering affidavits, attempted to obtain relief during the festive period without proper adherence to procedural fairness, showing bad faith.
PlatCorp further agued that Lishea and Tsenase as the Appellants seek relief from the Court of Appeal that is ultra vires because Rule 13(2) of the Court of Appeal Rules limits the Court’s jurisdiction to staying executions of criminal orders, not civil orders. The High Court, not the Court of Appeal, is the proper forum for such applications and any interpretation of Rule 13(2) that grants broader powers to the Court of Appeal would be unconstitutional.
Motena and Tsenase failed to provide evidence of valid directorships vetted by the Central Bank of Lesotho (CBL), raising questions about their locus standi. And they failed to join the CBL and DCEO, who have direct and substantial interests in the litigation, further undermines their case.
PlatCorp got to the throat by accusing Motena and Tsenase of a pattern of frivolous and vexatious litigation, of non-compliance and procedural manipulation, including failing to prosecute their application promptly, and attempting to bypass procedural safeguards to obtain relief unfairly.
With Tsenase and Motena falling in their own trap and unable to immediately file a replying affidavit, the matter was postponed for more than two weeks to the 13th of January 2025. Why? Was this to merely enable them adequate time to put their house in order and rectify their failures?
It again begs the question why the matter was set down on one day’s notice on Boxing Day. Also, what would have happened had PlatCorp lawyers not reacted on Boxing Day, filed papers and appear all within less than 24 hours from when Tsenase and Motena demanded a date to be heard in the apex court.
And why was the Apex Court even open and willing to give a directive on a public holiday during the festive season to hear an urgent application the next day on the whim of Motena and Tsenase. It is all more than puzzling. And by publicly flaunting Judge Mosito as the man who will deliver the goods for her, because of her “friendship” with him – as previously alluded to in these pages – Lishea is not doing the judge any favours. His moves on the case are now being closely watched and that perhaps raises more curiosity over the events of Boxing Day 2024.
The post Mysterious turn in M280 million Platcorp case first appeared on Lesotho Times.
The post Mysterious turn in M280 million Platcorp case appeared first on Lesotho Times.