…as accusations continue to more than a decade later
Mathatisi Sebusi
CONVICTED ritual murderer, Lehlohonolo’s Scott’, now infamous October 14, 2012, jail escape while awaiting trial, continues to haunt the Lesotho Correctional Service (LCS)’s top brass.
While it was never established how he managed to escape the maximum wing of the Maseru Central Correctional Institution (MCCI), speculation has always been that senior prison officials could have aided his escape.
The speculation has continued unabated despite Scott’s recapture in neighbouring South Africa, subsequent trial and conviction to life imprisonment for butchering two Koalabata residents, in January and June 2012 respectively. Scott was slapped with an additional five-year sentence for the prison escape.
Now LCS Deputy Commissioner, Matingoe Phamotse, and two other senior officers, are alleged to have aided Scott’s 2012 prison escape.
The two other officers are Assistant Commissioner Teboho Masenkane and Assistant Superintendent Ramaketekete Rasehloho.
This is according to LCS Paralegal Officer, Assistant Superintendent Bokang Ramotena, who says the three should be probed as they could have played a significantly active role in Scott’s escape from the MCCI.
Ms Ramotena made the allegations in a recent exclusive interview with the Sunday Express.
Scott escaped while awaiting trial for the murders of Koalabata residents, 13-year-old Moholobela Seetsa and Kamohelo Mohata aged 22, whom he had killed, allegedly for ritual purposes, in January and June 2012, respectively.
In 2020, the now retired Justice Teboho Moiloa, sentenced Scott to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. He also slapped him another five years for the unlawful escape from the Maseru Central Prison on 14 October 2012 while awaiting trial.
Speaking to the Sunday Express last week Ms Ramotena said that two weeks after Scott’s escape from prison, she had by chance seen a scanned photocopy of his (Scott’s) passport in the laptop of one of her colleagues, Assistant Superintendent Rasehloho.
According to Ms Ramotena, on the day, Mr Rasehloho had just returned from a workshop.
She said she saw the passport photocopy while they were going through Mr Rasehloho’s workshop photos.
Out of nowhere, she said, the passport photocopy had cropped up from picture gallery of Mr Rasehloho’s laptop.
Ms Ramotena said when she inquired about the passport copy, Mr Rasehloho had told her that he knew nothing about it.
He had further told her that the laptop belonged to his then boss, Assistant Superintendent Masenkane.
She said upon the discovery and driven by the earlier narrative allegedly driven by Deputy Commissioner Phamotse, that Scott had used Vaseline (petroleum jelly) to escape prison, she (Ms Ramotena) had felt compelled to approach his (Phamotse’s) office, together with Mr Rasehloho.
The idea, she said, was to report the passport photocopy discovery in the hope that new information would lead to nailing LCS officers who could have aided Scott’s escape.
However, to her dismay, Ms Ramotena alleged, Mr Phamotse did not act on the new information.
“The matter was instead swept under the carpet,” Ms Ramotena said.
“I reported the matter to him but to my disappointment, he did not take any action. Neither did he question officers on the passport photo issue. He continued with the narrative that Scott had escaped using Vaseline despite the new information.”
Ms Ramotena further suggested that the issue was concealed because the trio, Messrs Rasehloho and Masenkane, and Deputy Commissioner Phamotse were “involved in aiding Scott’s escape”.
Ms Ramotena further told the Sunday Express, that Scott had written letters to Mr Phamotse, seeking his (Phamotse’s) audience, so that they could discuss the escape and identities of people who had helped him escape.
But Mr Phamotse had not responded to any of Sott’s letters, she said.
To test the veracity of Ms Ramotena’s allegations, another source familiar with the issue, confirmed to the Sunday Express on Wednesday, that Scott had indeed written at least four letters now to Mr Phamotse.
According to the source, he (Mr Phamotse), had however, ignored the prisoner, refusing to entertain his request for a meeting.
The source who is also a senior LCS officer, even suggested that this publication should approach the prison management, to seek permission to meet with Scott for an interview on the contents of his letters to Mr Phamotse.
Contacted for comment by the Sunday Express, Mr Rasehloho, refuted most of Ms Ramotena’s allegations, asserting that she was on a smear campaign aimed at tarnishing his image.
He said Ms Ramotena was bitter because he (Rasehloho) was her former spouse who had divorced her.
Since their divorce, Mr Rasehloho claimed, she had been incriminating him, using every available opportunity to associate him with Scott’s case “despite me not working at MCCI at the time of the escape”.
Mr Rasehloho, however, admitted that there was a scanned copy of a passport belonging to Scott, in the office laptop he was using back then.
He said at the time, he worked at the LCS headquarters under the public relations department.
He explained that when he discovered the passport photocopy, he was with Ms Ramotena, who was still his wife then.
They had both reported the matter to his then supervisor, Assistant Superintendent Masenkane, who was head of the communications department based at the LCS headquarters.
He said the explanation given by Mr Masenkane, was that the passport photocopy was made for the intelligence office which was working with the police on Scott’s case.
“I do not know what her intension was with this information. She is a bitter woman because we got divorced and is now dragging my name through the mud, saying despicable things to whoever cares to listen,” Mr Rasehloho said.
Also contacted for comment was Mr Masenkane, who was initially hostile when this journalist called him on his mobile line. He threatened that should his name appear in our publication, there would be problems between him and this reporter.
Then he later insisted on coming to the Sunday Express offices where once calm, he gave his side of the story.
Contrary to Mr Rasehloho’s account, Mr Masenkane denied ever being approached by the former about the passport photocopy issue.
He explained that at the time, the then LCS head of intelligence, Superintendent Mohlanka Lehloenya, requested to make a photocopy of a passport, which he was not even aware then, belonged to Scott.
He said Mr Lehloenya explained to him that he wanted to circulate the passport copy as part of LCS efforts to re-capture Scott.
His side was corroborated by Mr Lehloenya, who told the Sunday Express via a phone call made in Mr Masenkane’s presence, that in 2012, he was head of LCS intelligence which was investigating Scott’s escape.
When contacted for comment on also Wednesday, Deputy Commissioner Phamotse, invited the Sunday Express to his office for a brief interview. This was because he was not comfortable speaking on the phone. He confirmed that indeed Ms Ramotena reported the passport photocopy issue to his office.
He said after receiving the report, he relayed the matter to “relevant authorities” “who conducted an investigation accordingly”. But, he said, he was not obliged to report back to Ms Ramotena.
“I reported the matter accordingly and what I do not understand is why a junior officer, expected me to report back to her. I do not report to Ramotena and I was not obliged to report anything back to her. I reported the matter to relevant authorities and an investigation was launched,” Mr Phamotse said.
Responding to allegations that he fed the media and public the narrative that Scott escaped prison using Vaseline, Mr Phamotse firmly asserted that he had never publicized such information.
Instead, he claimed that former police spokesperson (Masupha Masupha), had told the media that they had found a container of Vaseline in Scott’s cell, with traces of the substance on the window.
That, according to Mr Phamotse, was what birthed the narrative that he had said Scott was suspected to have used petroleum jelly to escape jail.
“This is the first time I talk about this. I am even named Mr Vaseline here in Maseru. This is a lie and a sick joke which is seriously getting on my nerves. The sad part is that this lie, is being peddled by people I work with,” Mr Phamotse said.
Asked about the four letters that Scott had allegedly written him, seeking audience to discuss his escape from jail and the identities of people who assisted him, Mr Phamotse denied knowing about or ever receiving such.
“I know nothing about the letters you ask about. I have never received any letters from Scott. If there are any letters to that effect, they must have been addressed to the LCS Commissioner’s office,” Mr Phamotse said.
