MASERU — High Court judge ’Maseforo Mahase on Monday withdrew from a civil case in which Police Commissioner ’Malejaka Letooane is facing trial for allegedly awarding a tender to a disqualified supplier. Letooane, together with Home Affairs principal secretary, Lefa Mokotjo, are facing trial for allegedly corruptly awarding a tender to supply police uniforms […]
MASERU — The Court of Appeal last Friday postponed a case between civil servants and money lending firms to October to allow the two parties a chance to argue on the correct interpretation of Lesotho’s money lending laws. “Parties should make a case ready for proper interpretation of the law. It is for the interest […]
MASERU — In 2006, 44-year-old Lekhokoho Kokome was on the verge of despair. Two years earlier Kokome had been diagnosed with HIV, the virus that causes Aids. His health was fast deteriorating. But just when he was losing all hope, an international medical and humanitarian agency, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), arrived. MSF set base in […]
MASERU — When Macaefa Billy walks into the dock next Friday his fate will not be in his hands. Neither will it be in the hands of his lawyer Haae Phofoolo. The secretary-general of the All Basotho Convention (ABC) party will face three prominent Appeal Court judges. Justices I G Farlan, C T Howie and […]
MASERU — The chief economic planner for the Ministry of Agriculture came under attack from members of the community parliament over the government’s failure to deliver agricultural services. The community parliament is an informal grouping of rural people organised by the Development for Peace Education (DPE), a civic group based in Maseru. It seeks to […]
BATTLE lines are drawn in the impoverished rural constituency of Hololo, about 130km north of the capital Maseru. The nine candidates — four independents and the rest from Lesotho’s major political parties — have promised each other a fight to the finish. The by-election has been set for May 22. The seat fell vacant last […]
BUTHA-BUTHE — Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD) women’s league boss, ‘Mathabiso Lepono, last Sunday launched a scathing attack on opposition leader Thomas Thabane describing him as a “deceitful leader” bent on causing confusion in Lesotho. Thabane is a former government minister who quit the ruling party to form the opposition All Basotho Convention (ABC) party […]
MASERU — A Maseru lawyer, Advocate Nketsi Makhera, who is facing a M500 000 theft charge for illegally selling a textile firm, was freed on M500 bail on Monday. Makhera, 32, who was the company’s provisional liquidator, is alleged to have sold C-River textile firm to a Chinese national Xie en Ming for M500 000. […]
MASERU — Prosperity Insurance Brokers wants the Central Bank of Lesotho (CBL) to reverse its decision to revoke its operating licence which was cancelled last October. Last week the troubled insurance broker lodged an urgent application in the High Court challenging the CBL’s decision. The company also wants High Court judge ’Maseshophe Hlajoane to order […]
MASERU — Two women from Ha-Ts’iu appeared in the Magistrate’s Court on Monday charged with abducting an infant in January. ‘Mathuso Ntiese, 58, and ‘Maselebalo Ntaolane, 51, are alleged to have abducted a week-old baby on January 30. It is alleged that Ntaolane stole the baby from a block of flats where its mother Mahali […]
MASERU — A South African pilot working in Lesotho will rue the day he asked a stranger to help him withdraw money from an ATM in the Maseru industrial area two weeks ago. This after the seemingly friendly stranger fled with his bank card and used it to withdraw M7 230 from his account. According […]
MASERU — Deafening music pumps from two powerful speakers in a makeshift stall along Kingsway Street in Maseru. On the stall is a huge assortment of music compact discs (CDs) and digital video discs (DVDs). But most of these do not look genuine at all. Rather the CDs and DVDs appear pirated. There clearly appears […]
MASERU — Professor Adelani Ogunrinade, the former vice-chancellor of the National University of Lesotho (NUL), has died. The Nigerian academic died at Medi-Clinic in Bloemfontein on Saturday afternoon a week after he was rushed to the hospital. Ogunrinade had earlier been discovered by his security guard in a semi-conscious state in his bathroom at his […]
MASERU — Lesotho Defence Force (LDF) soldiers co-operated with the enemy during the attacks at Makoanyane military base and the State House on April 22 last year, a lawyer assisting the commission investigating the attacks has said. In his submission to the commission, Tsebang Putsoane, said this week that the LDF soldiers breached security regulations […]
MASERU — Nine people died in road accidents during the Easter holiday, police figures show. Police spokesperson Masupha Masupha said there were 61 reported road accidents involving 100 vehicles during the Easter holiday last weekend. “Mafeteng had the highest death toll. Four people died in road accidents in that district,” Masupha said. Two people died […]
MASERU — The president of the Law Society of Lesotho Advocate Zwelakhe Mda wants incompetent High Court judges to be “named and shamed”. Mda said this while addressing the Lesotho Court of Appeal at the opening of its first session yesterday. Without naming names, Mda said there were some High Court judges who are undermining […]
MASERU — Five men aged between 30 and 40 were killed in a fire exchange with the police in Mafeteng last week. Another man was shot in the crossfire. The men were part of a suspected gang wanted by the police for murder, car theft and armed robbery. Police spokesperson Masupha Masupha said the police […]
MASERU — Professor Adelani Ogunrinade, who died last Saturday, was born 56 years ago in Nigeria. He graduated from the University of Ibadan with a degree in veterinary medicine obtaining distinctions in medicine, surgery and parasitology in 1974. He won the University of Ibadan Prize for Postgraduate Studies, the DH Hill Prize in Veterinary Medicine […]
MASERU — A 25-year-old man was on Tuesday ordered to undergo an HIV test after he was convicted of abducting and raping a 16-year-old girl by the Maseru Magistrate’s Court. Sekonyana Mabesa, from Mazenod, was found guilty of abducting the girl and raping her outside her home on August 30 2009. Mabesa pleaded guilty to […]
MASERU — Former Lesotho Highlands Development Authority (LHDA) accountant Peggy Thakeli yesterday asked the Court of Appeal to set aside the conviction imposed on her by the High Court for fraud. The High Court in July last year slapped Thakeli with an eight-year jail term for facilitating the fraudulent transfer of M2.4 million from the […]
MASERU — Opposition parties claim the government admitted at a Monday meeting that it had botched the implementation of the controversial Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) electoral model. There are also claims that at the same meeting held at the United Nations House the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) also admitted, for the first time since the […]
MASERU — Three soldiers were on Tuesday locked behind prison bars after the High Court found them guilty of killing a police woman during the 1998 political disturbances. Thapelo Ntaopane, Monyane Mokoatsi and Bulare Moiloa, were among a group of soldiers who went to Mafeteng police station in search of firearms and ammunition after the […]
MASERU — Professor Kopano Makoa is considered the Basotho National Party (BNP) leader-in-waiting. A strong faction in the party believes he is the right man to replace Major General Metsing Lekhanya who they accuse of presiding over the BNP’s collapse. Under Lekhanya, the faction says, the BNP has lost touch with the people and its […]
MASERU — An outbreak of measles has hit schools in Maseru. Two students from Motimposo Primary School reportedly died of measles after the disease hit the school in early March. The first victim, a boy aged 7, died on March 6. Five days later the disease claimed another victim, this time an 8-year-old girl. Both […]
MASERU — Six former members of the executive committee of the Lesotho People’s Congress (LPC) re-joined the ruling Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD) party yesterday, nine years after leaving the organisation. They defected together with 100 LPC supporters. The six were once members of the LPC executive committee. They were led by the former LPC […]
MASERU — A former MP who served as the only opposition legislator between 1993 and 1998 is demanding a government pension equivalent to that of the opposition leader of the National Assembly. Bofihla Nkuebe quit the then ruling Basutoland Congress Party (BCP) in 1993 to become the only opposition member in parliament under his Sefate […]
MASERU — A bread van belonging to Astoria Bakery was on Sunday morning hijacked by five armed men in Sefikeng. Police said the armed robbers shot the driver on the hand before fleeing away with M1 900 in cash and the van. Police spokesperson Masupha Masupha said the robbers blocked the vehicle when it was […]
MASERU — Public Eye columnist, Tukula Makhakhe, who is facing two counts of armed robbery, was on Monday granted M1 400 bail by the High Court. Makhakhe, who is denying the charges, is being charged together with two other men, Teboho Makobane and Karabo Thulo. Makhakhe and Makobane were each granted bail of M1 400 […]
MASERU — Two men appeared in the Maseru Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday on a charge of armed robbery. Monyane Molibeli, 31, and Phafa Rafats’e, 25, were charged for allegedly robbing Lipene Lejakane of M40 000 in cash, four cell phones and a laptop. The court heard that Molibeli and Rafats’e stormed Lejakane’s home in Ha-Thetsane […]
MASERU — Four men from Majaheng Mapoteng in Berea were on Monday found guilty of brutally killing Sekoche Mphaka over suspected stock theft. High Court judge Lisebo Chaka-Makhooane found the four — Moeketsi Molise, Moeketsi Lesooana, Mari Lesooana and Tankiso Cheli — guilty of killing Mphaka on February 1 2000. The court heard that the […]
