Limpho Sello
The Lesotho Congress of Democratic Unions (LECODU) has suspended its president, Mosaletsane Kulehile, pending the outcome of his court case with the Lesotho Association of Teachers (LAT).
Mr Kulehile was LAT president for five years until he lost the post to Opotuna Mapetla in January this year.
However, on 12 April 2016, Mr Kulehile was written a letter by the new LAT executive asking him to ‘show cause’ why he should not be suspended from all the association’s activities while allegations of misconduct against him are being investigated.
LECODU is an affiliate of LAT and says it decided to suspend Mr Kulehile because of his fight with the teachers’ mother-body which has since spilled into the High Court.
LECODU secretary general Mosesanyane Masoebe this week told the Lesotho Times: “We received a letter from LAT notifying us that they had suspended Mr Kulehile from their activities. Because we are LAT’s affiliate, we had to act.
“This was a difficult issue for us because our president was now fighting with our mother-body so we had to do the right thing and suspend him from LECODU activities until his case with LAT is finalised.
“We didn’t just suspend him; we had to consider several issues and one of them was the law. You will realise that even in our letter, we quoted the law. We had to make sure we address this issue fairly but now, Mr Kulehile feels like I’m fighting him as a person. He even wrote me a message on WhatsApp about it but I didn’t respond. I and the committee were only trying to do what we thought was the right thing to do and I don’t hold any grudge against him.”
However, Mr Kulehile yesterday dismissed the LECODU suspension and insisted he was still president of the union.
“I am still the president of LECODU. Masoebe is the one who does not have any rights within the union because he joined LECODU through the Lesotho Workers’ Association (LEWA) which is no longer part of LECODU.
“I was elected president and national office-bearers are the only ones who can call a National Executive Committee meeting to decide on this issue. No such meeting has been called so what Masoebe is doing is unlawful and I won’t accept anything that is coming from him,” Mr Kulehile said.
