Moorosi Tsiane
THE Court of Appeal has rejected a bid by Lesotho’s former High Commissioner to Britain, Rethabile Mokaeane, to overturn a judgment ordering her to pay a subordinate M80 000 for defamation.
High Court judge, Tšeliso Monapathi, had issued a default judgment of M80 000 against Ms Mokaeane after the latter was sued by her subordinate, Lineo Palime for defamation. This after Ms Mokaeane had accused her subordinates of stealing and mismanaging public funds at the country’s mission in London in an interview with a local radio station on 19 April 2021.
Ms Mokaeane had told the radio station that public officers under her supervision had “gone out of their way to steal and misuse government funds for their own personal agendas.”
The accusation did not sit well with Ms Palime, who worked as the first counselor, at the mission in London. She said Ms Mokaeane’s statements had tarnished her good image in society and in diplomatic forums. She said she had been labelled a thief and a corrupt person.
She said as a result of Ms Mokaeane’s allegations, her bank accounts had been frozen and she could not access her funds.
Ms Palime then approached the High Court with a M5 million lawsuit, being M3 million for defamation and M2million for loss of reputation as a result of the closure of her bank accounts.
The radio station, Molisa Ea Molemo FM, had defended the action and denied liability saying the statement by Ms Mokaeane was not specifically directed at Ms Palime but concerned general “events that occurred at the mission without specifically pointing fingers at anyone.”
Mrs Mokaeane however did not enter an appearance to defend nor take any other step to defend the action. A default judgment was then successfully sought against her with Judge Monapathi ordering her to pay Ms Palime M80 000 in damages for defamation and costs of suit.
The default judgment was served on Ms Mokaeane’s husband on 21 September and again on 12 October 2021.
Several months after the default judgment was granted and after she was subsequently served with a writ of execution, Ms Mokaeane then filed an urgent application on 17 May 2022 seeking the rescission of the default judgment. She also sought a stay of execution of the writ.
The application for rescission was dismissed by Judge Mafelile Ralebese on 24 May 2022.
Ms Mokaeane then approached the apex court appealing Judge Ralebese’s judgement. Her appeal was heard by a three-judge panel of Justices Kananelo Mosito, Petrus Damaseb and Moses Chinhengo on 12 April 2023.
They dismissed her appeal with costs, finding no legitimate reason why she had originally failed to defend the defamation suit against her. This means she must now pay up or risk losing her assets to the sheriff.
Ms Mokaeane served as Lesotho’s High Commissioner to Britain from 29th October 2019 to April 2022.
