Mohloai Mpesi
THE embattled All Basotho Convention (ABC) will hold a special conference in Maseru on 30 October after 36 of its 80 constituency committees demanded that its depleted leadership account for the turmoil that has driven five of the party’s most senior officials from office this month.
Delegates could also order fresh elections for the National Executive Committee (NEC). That is the outcome the departed officials are understood to have been pushing for, and one the camp around party leader Nkaku Kabi says the numbers will not support.
The resignations have gutted the party’s top tier. Secretary general Thebe Mokoatle, deputy leader Samonyane Ntsekele, chairman Kemiso Mosenene, deputy secretary general Tšolo Khechane and deputy chairman Lebakeng Ishmael Mpana have all quit.
Mr Mokoatle said sustained intimidation, insults and death threats had forced him out, while Mr Mosenene cited the absence of unity in the NEC.
The departures follow a 25 August circular in which Mr Kabi accused Messrs Ntsekele and Mokoatle of deliberately destabilising the party. Weeks earlier, according to our sister paper, the Sunday Express, Mr Mokoatle was attacked by Mr Kabi’s bodyguards at an NEC sitting. The bodyguards reportedly said they feared for Mr Kabi’s safety.
The remaining five NEC members this week filled four of the vacant posts. Kefeletsoe Mojela is the new deputy leader, Tšehlo Ramarou chairman, Sekaleli deputy chairman and Tsele Mohoshela deputy secretary general.
Treasurer Teboho Thobileng will act as secretary general because, according to party spokesperson Mphonyane Lebesa, only a conference can fill that post.
“We formed a quorum because five members remained,” Mr Lebesa told the Lesotho Times yesterday.
He said Mr Kabi had instructed Mr Khechane to convene the NEC meeting, but Mr Khechane resigned the same day.
Under the ABC constitution, a special conference may be called when the NEC judges a matter serious enough to warrant one, or when 30 percent of constituencies submit written requests to the secretary general. With 80 constituencies, that threshold is 24, which the 36 requests exceed by 12.
“The constituencies want answers about the problems within the party’s leadership because there is a great deal of confusion. The committee will explain to the conference what has happened from the beginning. The conference will then deliberate on the matter and decide which direction to take,” Mr Lebesa said.
He said the resigned officials had earlier tried and failed to rally constituencies behind a special conference. The Lesotho Times understands they wanted a new NEC elected without Mr Kabi.
According to Mr Lebesa, only one constituency wrote in at first. The letters poured in only after Mr Kabi issued a statement inviting constituencies to request a conference.
“It was clear that, from the beginning, they tried to influence constituencies to write letters and seek a special conference. Only one constituency wrote. But after the leader issued a press release saying people could write letters, people started writing in numbers,” he said.
“That in itself shows clearly that the numbers are on the side of Mr Kabi. So, you can’t say the conference should be convened to elect a new committee when this test alone tells you that you will have a problem with the numbers.”
M400 000 rent bill
The party is also sinking into debt. Mr Mokoatle claims the ABC owes about M400 000 in unpaid rent and accuses Mr Kabi of blocking payment while diverting party funds to himself.
“We owe M400 000 in rent, which has still not been paid. He refuses to let it be paid, and instead takes part of that money to pay himself. There is M80 000 that he paid himself, money that was supposed to go towards rent,” Mr Mokoatle alleged.
He said only Mr Kabi and Mr Thobileng had access to the party’s bank account.
“We have not paid rent since we became the committee in 2024. We found the previous committee owing M55 000 in rent; we did not pay that either,” Mr Mokoatle said.
He said Mr Kabi had also clashed with the previous NEC over rent.
“Just a month before we assumed office, they paid M100 000. He fought with them because he did not want them to pay that rent,” he said.
Mr Mokoatle further alleged that Mr Kabi claims the party owes him about M500 000 but has produced no proof, and that he paid himself M400 000 of that amount while the previous committee was in office. In total, he has paid himself M480 000.
Mr Kabi has previously blamed the rent burden on Mr Ntsekele. In his 25 August circular, he said he had proposed after the 2022 election that the party vacate its offices because the rent was too high. He said he discovered in July that Mr Ntsekele had renewed the lease without the committee’s knowledge, and that the contract requires 12 months’ notice to vacate.
Mr Kabi’s phone rang unanswered when the Lesotho Times sought his comment.
Fall from power
The ABC was formed in October 2006 by Thomas Thabane, who broke away from the then ruling Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD) with a group of legislators. It went on to lead coalition governments from 2012 to 2015 and from 2017 to 2022.
Mr Thabane resigned as prime minister in May 2020 under mounting pressure after he was implicated in the June 2017 murder of his estranged wife, Lipolelo Thabane. He remained party leader until January 2022. He has denied involvement, and the charges against him were withdrawn in July 2022 after the prosecution said it could not trace a key witness.
Mr Kabi, a former health and water minister, won the leadership at an elective conference on 28 and 29 January 2022. He defeated then Prime Minister Moeketsi Majoro by 723 votes to 609. Mr Ntsekele, who had also entered the race, later became his deputy.
Nine months later, the ABC was routed in the October 2022 general election won by Sam Matekane’s Revolution for Prosperity (RFP). It lost every constituency, including Mr Kabi’s, and was left with just eight proportional representation seats in the 120-member National Assembly.
With general elections due next year, the 30 October conference will test whether Mr Kabi can hold together what remains of the party.
