Pascalinah Kabi
A POLICE officer accused of leaking an examination paper for police recruits has been given until next week Monday to ‘show cause’ why he cannot be suspended from work pending a disciplinary hearing.
The police officer, stationed at Mazenod Police Station, was on Monday slapped with the show cause letter after an investigation showed that he could have leaked the question paper.
The question paper was circulated on social media last week before the examinations were completed, forcing Police and Public Safety Minister, ‘Mampho Mokhele to call for fresh examinations.
According to well-placed sources, the police officer was sent to the Police Headquarters Human Resource office to collect the question papers for police recruits sitting for the examination in Mazenod.
“The police officer opened the envelop, took pictures of the question paper and sent it to someone via WhatsApp and that question paper was circulated via social media, and prejudiced the transparency of the recruitment process,” said on a source who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The source added: “It was ascertained that he was the culprit because an envelope that had been sealed when it was handed to him was found to have been opened by the time he handed it over to his superiors in Mazenod.”
Police spokesperson, Inspector Mpiti Mopeli, confirmed the embattled police officer was given seven days to give reasons why he cannot suspended from the service.
“It is true that an inspector stationed at Mazenod Police Station has been given seven days to show-cause why he cannot be suspended from the service.
“The inspector was served with the (show cause) on Monday following allegations that he leaked a question paper for police recruits,” Inspector Mopeli said.
The recruitment of police officers has previously been marred by controversy.
Early this year, former Police Minister and current Deputy Prime Minister, Monyane Moleleki, accused the former seven parties’ coalition government of corruptly recruiting their political supporters.
Mr Moleleki alleged that he participated in the recruitment of 250 party supporters of his former Democratic Congress (DC) party and its coalition partners, namely the Lesotho Congress for Democracy, Lesotho People’s Congress, Popular Front for Democracy, Basotho Congress Party, National Independent Party and the Marematlou Freedom Party.
“I am one of the people within (the-then) government that made 22 000 young men and women of this country to wait for long hours in the sun with hope they would get jobs when we knew we already had our people listed for the police jobs,” Mr Moleleki said.
His claims were rejected by the former regime.
