…Moleleki’s downfall marks end of illustrious political career
Bongiwe Zihlangu
THE lights have finally dimmed for one-time political giant Monyane Moleleki.
This after the former Alliance of Democrats (AD) leader lost the party’s leadership post to his deputy and one-time protege, Prof Ntoi Rapapa. Prof Rapapa whipped his former boss by 1,191 to Mr Moleleki’s 586 votes.
It was the final humiliation of a man who straddled Lesotho’s political landscape like a giant colossus for more than 40 years, earning the nickname “Mahaletere” partly because of his halter-like beard and moustache.
Mr Moleleki founded the AD in December 2016 and formally launched the party in early 2017, after breaking ranks with the Democratic Congress (DC) after a fallout with his former leader and DC founder Pakalitha Mosisili.
The duo had been in a messy power struggle after the once loyal Mr Moleleki tried to topple Mr Mosisili to assert his own ambition to become prime minister. That did not happen as Mr Moleleki only ended as deputy prime minister in a coalition led by Thomas Thabane after the June 2017 general elections.
Unlike Mr Mosisili, who bowed down from the DC gracefully and anointed a successor, Mathibeli Mokhothu, Mr Moleleki’s loss of the leadership of a party that he believed he owned is the final act of humiliation for a man with a long political history.
But, the tell-tale signs had been evident that from as far back as the end of 2021, Moleleki would ultimately lose favour with the AD electorate, after he had somersaulted on his earlier decision to not contest the next elections in his native Machache constituency, for which he had been MP since 1993.
Moleleki had announced post the 2017 elections, that he would not be contesting elections in Machache anymore, and that he would be content going to parliament on the AD’s PR ticket.
Again, in April 2021 Moleleki had reiterated that he would not be standing as the party candidate in Machache.
He had said he would seek to return to parliament as a non-constituency (PR) legislator for what would be his last tenure in parliament. Thereafter he would pass the baton to younger politicians.
When Mr Moleleki first made the pledge to gradually hand over to fresh blood in 2017, he had the decision was based on his belief that leaders should not cling to positions for life but make way for others.
“It is a disgrace that ….one person should be a leader for 40 years. We need to foster a culture of passing the leadership baton,” Mr Moleleki said at the time.
“The six times that I have been elected in Machache mark the end of my time as a candidate in that constituency and at the next election, whether it comes tomorrow or in the year 2022, I will not be standing as a candidate for Machache constituency. When there was a need for me to stand for constituency elections, I did and now it is time to give another person an opportunity to stand,” Moleleki had said.
Yet Mr Moleleki did the exact opposite of what he had promised.
Towards the preparations for the 2022 elections, Mr Moleleki flip flopped saying the AD’s national executive committee (NEC) had directed him to contest elections in Machache.
That now appears to have been a self-serving claim, that kickstarted his slide towards political oblivion. The decision did not sit well with his constituents who rebelled against their once beloved leader and chased him away, forcing Mr Moleleki to impose himself on the neighbouring Thaba-Bosiu constituency.
As fate would have it, Mr Moleleki who was used to winning his Machache constituency with wide margins, attained only 152 votes, a far cry from his Revolution for Prosperity (RFP) contender Joseph Isaac Malebaleba, who won with 3,019 and is now the Thaba-Bosiu legislator.
Moleleki came to prominence in 1993 after Lesotho’s first democratic elections and was appointed Minister of Natural Resources, by the late former Prime Minister Ntsu Mokhehle under the Basotho Congress Party (BCP) government which reigned from 1993 to 1994. He then became Minister of Information from 1996 to 1998.
As a leading figure in the breakaway Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD) under the leadership of former leader and Prime Minister Pakalitha to whom Dr Mokhehle had passed the baton, Moleleki was Minister of Natural Resources again from 1998 to 2004, Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2004 to 2007, and Minister of Natural Resources from 2007 to 2012.
In 2012, Mr Mosisili jumped the LCD ship to form the DC, and Mr Moleleki, who was his best friend and right-hand man then, became his deputy.
However, the DC lost government power in the 2012 elections to an ABC-led coalition government. Mr Mosisili would bounce back as Lesotho’s premier after the February 2015 elections, and appointed Mr Moleleki the Minister of Police and Public Safety .
But, relations between Mr Mosisili and his deputy soured at the end of 2016 after a prolonged power struggle wherein Mr Moleleki was trying to topple his leader from the helm of the DC and get his shot at being prime minister. The party’s conference in November that year, resolved to suspend Moleleki for six years.
The suspension compelled Moleleki to form the AD, and subsequently enter into a coalition government with Thabane’s ABC and the Basotho National Party (BNP) led by Thesele ‘Maseribane after June 2017.
Under the 2017-2020 coalition, Moleleki served as Deputy Prime Minister of Lesotho, as well as Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, but fell short of qualifying for the benefits of a retired deputy prime minister by two months, when Thabane’s government was removed via no-confidence in parliament in May 2020.
Now aged 72, it is not clear where Mr Moleleki will go from now as he declined a request for an interview with this publication after his humiliating defeat. One thing appears clear though; his long, sometimes controversial career, has ended in disgrace and embarrassment.
