…former PM Thabane and Rantšo linked to army operation that led to Mahao’s death
…in explosive testimony alleging conspiracy against LDF command
Former Basotho National Party (BNP) leader Chief Thesele Maseribane was the key person in the mutiny plot within the Lesotho Defence Force (LDF) in 2015, the High Court heard this week.
According to the new defence witness, Retired Major General Tumo Lekhooa, who first took the stand on Monday in the marathon murder trial of Lieutenant General Maaparankoe Mahao, Maseribane was the “principal architect” in the mutiny plot.
Lt-Gen Mahao was also a suspect in the alleged mutiny plot. He was killed by an LDF task team that was established to hunt down the suspected mutineers and arrest them. Mahao was fatally shot during the operation that was dubbed “Operation Safe Lives” on June 25, 2015. He later died while receiving medical treatment at the Makoanyane Military Hospital the same day, according to the evidence in court.
The army has maintained that Mahao was shot dead because he resisted arrest and fought back during that operation. Mahao is alleged to have held out his pistol and pointed it at Captain Tefo Hashatsi before he was shot by Captain Haleo Makara at the scene of the crime in Mokema that fateful day. Hashatsi was the team leader of the operation.
But the Crown legal representation has challenged the legality of the operation. They argued the operation was illegal, questioning its authorisation. Advocate Rethabile Setlojane, for the Crown, said the operation could not have been legal because the operative soldiers were all junior to Lt-Gen Mahao in military ranks.
Captain Hashatsi was the most senior officer of the eight men manning the operation. Setlojane argued all the men, including Hashatsi himself, were junior to Mahao. Therefore, it would be illegal for them to have been authorised to effect the arrest on their senior authority.
Setlojane also based his argument on the testimony of the current army commander, Lt-Gen Mojalefa Letsoela, who had earlier testified as state witness number 38. In his testimony, Letsoela had also dismissed allegations of a mutiny plot. He said there was no record of the mutiny charges and therefore the case was not prosecutable in the Court Martial.
Now, the Retired General Lekhooa was brought in by the defence to take the stand to testify on whether or not there was any mutiny plot in the LDF.
The pensioned Major General was the acting Director of the Military Intelligence (MI) unit of the LDF at the time of the alleged mutiny events in 2015, before he was transferred to head the National Security Service (NSS) in 2016.
He told the court this week that following allegations of the mutiny plot, as the MI, “We had cast our net wide… Our findings led us to the State House. We found out that the whole plot started at the State House, following the snap general elections of February 2015. There were political party leaders dissatisfied with the outcome of the elections,” the General said.
Due to the 2014 political and security instability, Lesotho held snap National Assembly elections on February 28, 2015, two years ahead of schedule. The outcome ousted the tripartite administration of Dr Motsoahae Thomas Thabane, Mothetjoa Metsing and Chief Maseribane, respectively, of the All Basotho Convention (ABC), the Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD) which had split when its then secretary general, Keketso Rantšo, left to form her own Reformed Congress of Lesotho (RCL), and the BNP.
According to Major General Lekhooa, his team had found out that the three political party leaders—Thabane, Maseribane and Rantšo—were dissatisfied with the outcome of the snap elections that ushered back the administration of the previous prime minister, Dr Pakalitha Mosisili.
Lekhooa said of the three disgruntled leaders, Maseribane was the one who instigated a plot to destabilise the army structures in their protest against the election outcome.
“This discussion between the three political leaders was first held in a meeting held in the State House. This was immediately after the election outcome and Dr Thabane had not yet moved from the State House and the incoming prime minister (Mosisili) had not yet been inaugurated,” Lekhooa told the court.
He added that Maseribane continued to hold clandestine meetings at his office at BNP Centre and elsewhere, including at the residential home of one Mr Hloloane, a retired member of the LDF, in Ha Leqele, Maseru. He said a large number of the members of the LDF had attended the clandestine meetings where Maseribane “lobbied them into the mutiny plot.”
Lekhooa revealed that Maseribane was experienced in organising riots in the military, “as he did post the elections in 1998.” He said Maseribane had established “his cells and collaborative networks within the army, to accomplish his desires to cling onto power.”
Also to accomplish his mission, Lekhooa said Maseribane used businesspeople such as Jessie Ramakatane. Other civilians who were engaged in the plot, Lekhooa said, included Thabiso Mahase, “the person of high standing in the ABC.” Mahase, he said, was notorious for cases of the disarmament of soldiers deployed as bodyguards at respective cabinet ministers’ residential places in 2007.
Lebohang Hlaele, the Secretary General of the ABC, was also implicated by Lekhooa as the man who provided accommodation for the soldiers who went on self-imposed exile in South Africa, “fleeing what was termed kidnappings, abductions and intimidation by the soldiers on other soldiers in May 2015.” Following the alleged mutiny charges, some soldiers fled for their lives and sought refuge in neighbouring South Africa. The court heard this week how the soldiers were accommodated at Hlaele’s residential place in Ladybrand, South Africa.
Other actors, Lekhooa said, included former Commissioner of Police Khothatso Tšooana, “who pledged to support operatives of the mutiny plot with police ammunition and additional personnel, among other things.”
General Lekhooa did not spare the Retired Major General Matela Matobakele, who he revealed disappeared under mysterious circumstances from the army in 2014. During his disappearance, Lekhooa revealed Matobakele was secretly working for Dr Thabane and his party, the ABC. “He worked undercover as Chief of Security for the ABC Leader, Dr Motsoahae Thomas Thabane. He also secretly operated as a spy, collaborating with some of the international spy communities,” Lekhooa revealed. Matobakele, Lekhooa added, was a member of the ABC in good standing.
Lekhooa confirmed, when led during cross-examination by defence lawyer Attorney Qhalehang Letsika, that the mutiny plot was real. He disputed the testimony of the current LDF commander, Lt-Gen Letsoela, who had testified that there were no records and evidence to prove there was such a plot. Lekhooa said there were clear records of the plot compiled by the MI.
Lekhooa did not spare the non-governmental organisations and the media, which he said were also engaged in the plot. The Transformation Resource Centre, the Lesotho Council of Non-Governmental Organisations and the Development for Peace Education were mentioned by Lekhooa as the NGOs which he said were used to dispel the fact that there was a mutiny plot.
“They carefully selected emotionally provoking words such as ‘kidnapping, abduction and intimidation’ to suggest that the suspected mutineers were not simply arrested and detained by their colleagues, but kidnapped and assaulted for no justifiable reason,” said Lekhooa.
The radio stations which connived with the NGOs to broadcast the “disinformation” were Harvest FM and People’s Choice FM, according to his testimony.
While he gave his testimony, Lekhooa kept reminding the court that he would not divulge some of the evidence because he still had to answer before courts on other cases he faces himself. The Retired Major General is still on bail. He still has his own scandals to answer before the courts.
In 2017, General Lekhooa himself fled the country. He claimed before the High Court last year, upon his return and subsequent arrest, that he fled out of fear of then Prime Minister Thabane, who had just been reinstated into power following his ABC victory in the 2017 National Assembly elections.
Lekhooa was arrested in February last year upon his return from self-exile in South Africa. He said he had fled after Dr Thabane dismissed him from the NSS, where he oversaw the state’s intelligence as then Director General. He said Thabane had first withdrawn his bodyguards and confiscated his service firearms, leaving him vulnerable.
He still faces charges of treason and murder in connection with the attempted coup against Thabane’s government on August 29-30, 2014, as well as the murder of General Mahao on June 25, 2015, which is exactly the case in point. His trial was separated.
In his bail application filed last year in the High Court, Lekhooa claimed that Thabane publicly accused him of spreading “false” allegations that the former First Lady, ‘Maesaiah Thabane, was responsible for the murder of Mr Thabane’s estranged previous wife, Lipolelo Thabane.
Lekhooa argued that he had not been charged with any crime at the time of his departure in 2017, but feared for his safety. He claimed that hostility towards him intensified immediately after Thabane reassumed power. Despite multiple attempts to provide the Prime Minister with intelligence updates, as was expected of him as the NSS boss, Thabane allegedly refused to meet with him, he claimed.
He stated that his secondment to the NSS was abruptly terminated, his bodyguards withdrawn, and his service weapons confiscated. Following this, he claims that upon returning to the Lesotho Defence Force, he took annual leave with the approval of then LDF commander, Lieutenant General Khoantle Motšomotšo. However, his security situation deteriorated further when his bodyguards were withdrawn, and his service weapons—two rifles and a sidearm—were confiscated.
Faced with these threats, Lekhooa stated that he decided to flee to South Africa in October 2017, with his family’s support.
He then pleaded with the court to grant him bail on conditions that he pays a M1000 cash deposit, attends remands, reports himself to the police every Monday, surrenders his passport to the police and stands trial to finality.
Summary
- According to the new defence witness, Retired Major General Tumo Lekhooa, who first took the stand on Monday in the marathon murder trial of Lieutenant General Maaparankoe Mahao, Maseribane was the “principal architect” in the mutiny plot.
- Now, the Retired General Lekhooa was brought in by the defence to take the stand to testify on whether or not there was any mutiny plot in the LDF.
- The pensioned Major General was the acting Director of the Military Intelligence (MI) unit of the LDF at the time of the alleged mutiny events in 2015, before he was transferred to head the National Security Service (NSS) in 2016.
I am a journalist based in Maseru, Lesotho, renowned for investigative reporting. Over the years, my work has been published both locally and internationally, including in South Africa through the Amabhungane Centre for Investigative Journalism and the Daily Maverick, among other publications.
In Lesotho, I have served as a senior reporter for several leading weekly newspapers, including the Lesotho Times, Public Eye, and Sunday Express. My reporting has focused on uncovering issues of public interest, promoting accountability, and giving voice to underreported stories.
In 2016, I co-founded the MNN Centre for Investigative Journalism in Maseru, an initiative dedicated to strengthening investigative journalism and fostering a culture of transparency and public-interest reporting in Lesotho.
