Staff Reporter
FORMER Police Commissioner, Holomo Molibeli, prematurely terminated former Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Motlatsi Mapola’s employment in the police service, the High Court judge has ruled.
Mr Mapola ran to court after Mr Molibeli retired him on 8 March 2023, instead of 8 December 2023, which he cited as his correct retirement date.
Justice Fumane Khabo has thus ordered the Lesotho Mounted Police Service (LMPS) to pay Mr Mapola’s salary and benefits for the nine months between March and December 2023.
“The decision of the first respondent (Molibeli) of regarding the applicant’s date of birth as 8 March 1968 is set aside as null and void,” Justice Khabo’s 26 April 2024 judgement stated.
“It is declared that the correct date of birth of the applicant is 8 December 1968. The respondents are ordered to pay the applicant’s monthly salary until December 2023 being the correct date of his retirement.”
ACP Mapola was in March 2021 forced to go on terminal leave pending his retirement on 8 March 2023. He had accumulated 511 leave days.
The police’s statutory retirement age is 55 years.
ACP Mapola had argued through his lawyer, Attorney Qhalehang Letsika, that he was supposed to leave his employment on 8 December 2023, not 8 March 2023 as said by Mr Molibeli. This because he was born on 8 December 1968, and not 8 March 1968.
Justice Khabo ruled in his favour saying the LMPS command had been aware that Mr Mapola would reach the retirement age of 55 in December 2023 and not March 2023.
She said this had been evidenced by the letter from the LMPS human resources department which was addressed to the Lesotho Post Bank on behalf of Mr Mapola in which the LMPS human resource manager, one ACP L.C. Ralethoko, said Mr Mapola was born on 8 December 1968. This despite Mr Mapola having joined the LMPS in June 1988, with an identification the stating he was born on 8 December 1966. Mr Mapola had explained in his court papers that he had increased his age when applying for a job in the South African mines in order to qualify. But he had subsequently furnished the LMPS with his correct age during the course of his employment as a police officer and that had not been queried by the LMPS until Mr Mapola fell out with Mr Molibeli. Mr Mapola had also attached his baptism certificate and his mother’s supporting affidavit to prove his correct age.
Mr Mapola had fallen out with Mr Molibeli when he accused a faction of former Prime Minister Thomas Thabane’s All Basotho Convention (ABC) which was led by Professor Nqosa Mahao, as the party’s then deputy leader, of conniving with Mr Molibeli to fabricate murder allegations against Mr Thabane.
Mr Mapola had told the Lesotho Times sister publication, the Sunday Express in January 2021, that Mr Thabane had been falsely implicated in the 14 June 2017 murder of his ex-wife, Lipolelo.
The central allegation against Mr Thabane, by Mr Molibeli, was that his mobile phone was used to communicate with Lipolelo’s killers who were at the crime scene in Ha ‘Masana when she was assassinated.
Mr Thabane had been accused alongside his current wife, ‘Maesaiah, for orchestrating Lipolelo’s murder so the latter could assume the First Lady position. Mr Thabane was then locked in a bitter divorce battle with Lipolelo who would have assumed the First Lady office had she not been killed because the divorce had not been finalised.
Mr Thabane’s mobile phone was never used in the murder plot, at least according to Mr Mapola. He alleged that the Mahao faction found a willing tool in Mr Molibeli who latched onto the fabrications because he was desperate to save himself from Mr Thabane who wanted to fire him from his post at that time.
The Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) Hlalefang Motinyane nonetheless charged Mr Thabane and his wife but later withdrew the murder charges against the Thabane couple in July 2022, citing lack of evidence to prosecute them.
Prof Mahao left the ABC in April 2021 and formed his own Basotho Action Party (BAP) which now forms part of the current coalition government.
