SADC says Lesotho army chief should be fired

This is part of efforts to restore stability in the troubled kingdom.

The recommendation is likely to stoke more turmoil in Lesotho as Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili has already vowed that he is not bound by the SADC inquiry’s recommendations.

The SADC commission report into the death last year of ex-army chief, Brigadier Maaparankoe Mahao, was finally released in Lesotho’s Parliament on Monday amid chaos as opposition MPs loudly heckled Mosisili as he addressed the House.

Tlali Khasu, deputy leader of the main opposition All Basotho Convention (ABC) party, and other MPs claimed that Mosisili had doctored the report and not released the original version. They could not substantiate their claims as Speaker of Parliament Ntlhoi Motsamai, from Mosisili’s Democratic Congress, did not entertain their point of order disruptions.

The Prime Minister was forced to abandon his speech in which he sought to summarise the circumstances that had led to the formation of the SADC commission of Inquiry, led by Botswana High Court judge Mpaphi Phumaphi.

Despite the claims of doctoring, in the report which Mosisili tabled, Judge Phumaphi is very clear that Tlali Kamoli, the Lesotho Defence Forces (LDF) commander whom Mosisili re-appointed after wrestling power from his predecessor Thomas Thabane, must be “relieved of his duties” in the interests of “restoring trust and acceptance of the LDF to the Basotho nation”.

The report also recommends the suspension of other LDF officers implicated in other murders or attempted murders while their cases are investigated. It also recommends a vigorous investigation of the death of former LDF commander Mahao, whose killing by members of the LDF in June 2015, once Kamoli had been reinstated to his post by Mosisili, plunged Lesotho into further turmoil and prompted SADC to appoint the commission of inquiry.

The inquiry’s report was handed to SADC in November but had not been made public because Mosisili refused to receive it. It was only after SADC leaders threatened to release it themselves that Mosisili agreed, at a SADC summit last month, to release it.

SADC then set a 1 February 2016 deadline for the release of the report, but this was extended to 8 February 2016 after Mosisili pleaded that he wanted to release the report when Parliament re-opened.

The Prime Minister has nonetheless been making belligerent remarks that he reserved the right to edit the report in the interests of national security and was not bound by its recommendations.

Mosisili had also insisted that he would not release the report until the conclusion of a court case by one of the LDF’s top officers, Tefo Hashatsi, seeking to have the entire SADC commission nullified. Hashatsi is alleged to have led the operation that led to the killing of Mahao. Hashatsi’s entire case has since been dismissed by the Lesotho High Court.

Whether or not the report released by Mosisili is the original one seems largely immaterial now. The main thrust of the Phumaphi report was always going to be its recommendations on Kamoli, who kickstarted the Lesotho crisis by his coup attempt against Thabane on 30 August 2014.

Kamoli had been fired by then premier Thabane, but was re-appointed by Mosisili after the latter won the 28 February 2015 elections which were called as part of SADC’s efforts to resolve the post-coup crisis.

Upon his return, Kamoli launched a reign of terror across Lesotho and alleged there was a mutiny plot against the government. The claims of a mutiny plot led to the arrests and torture of dozens of LDF members.

However, the Phumaphi report has disputed the existence of any such mutiny and has recommended an amnesty for all the soldiers who had been arrested and court martialled by Kamoli.