NEWLY appointed Commissioner of Police, Borotho Matsoso, might just be what the Lesotho Mounted Police Service (LMPS) needed to get back into shape. Or at best, the strong hand needed at this time, to remould the LMPS into a fit for purpose organisation. He does not carry the baggage of having served under, or been entangled, with the supremely useless Holomo Molibeli who – in the words of deputy army commander Matele Matobakele – left Lesotho with “no police service worth talking about”. This does not mean that anyone who served under Molibeli is necessarily a bad cop.
To the contrary, we had hoped that Acting Police Commissioner, Dr Mahlape Morai, would be confirmed into the position. Within the short period of her acting, she had amply demonstrated that she has a good grasp of issues bedevilling the LMPS. She is highly educated and inspired a lot of confidence through her honest diagnosis of the issues at the police service in her interviews with us.
However, a strong argument can also be advanced that at this stage of its evolution, the LMPS needs a wholly fresh perspective. With his vast experience in law enforcement working for different agencies, including the LMPS itself, Mr Matsoso is well placed to foster that perspective.
Prime Minister Sam Matekane appointed Adv Matsoso to the helm of the LMPS on a three-year contract, starting from 23 May 2024 through to 23 May 2027.
Adv Matsoso has his work cut out.
He assumes the role of LMPS boss at a time when the police service’s image is battered due to its failure to combat crime.
As we have argued before, and we will whence repeat here, the LMPS, under Molibeli had itself morphed into a criminal enterprise. Directionless, leaderless and rudderless and unable to probe crimes, all Molibeli’s men could do was torture suspects for confessions. The government is now bearing the costs of this faux pas. Many lawsuits have been filed and lost by the LMPS.
It is the very LMPS, whose officers have been consorting with violent famo gangs, fuelling crime which the organisation is constitutionally obliged to prevent.
The same police officers are known to steal weapons from police armouries for sell to the famo gangsters. The same officers are said to be on famo gangsters’ payrolls. They get paid in exchange for tip-offs ahead of police raids.
Which all explains why Lesotho Defence Force (LDF) deputy boss Matobakele was right to condemn the LMPS as a hoax. As currently constituted, the LMPS is beyond reform. It needs to be rebuilt afresh.
And that’s where the hand of Adv Matsoso, a relative outsider, becomes crucial. He knows the LMPS inside out, having served as its assistant commissioner. He has also been at the helm of the DCEO, apart from being a trained lawyer, giving him an adequate bird’s eye view of what’s wrong with Lesotho’s law enforcement apparatus.
Unless Adv Matsoso comes with a full-proof plan to overhaul the LMPS, his tenure might not herald much hope. Lesotho desperately needs a fit for purpose police service to begin the task of combating crime.
Apart from his stints at the LMPS and the DCEO, Adv Matsoso has also garnered adequate crime fighting experience at the Revenue Services Lesotho (RSL) where he served as Assistant Commissioner of Intelligence and Investigations, in addition to his role as Inspector General of the Police.
His skill levels are not in dispute. He knows exactly what needs to be done. But he will need a lot of support from the government.
To begin with the government must not entangle him in politics. It must leave him to do his job and be a professional policeman. The politicisation of key state institutions has been their annus horribilis, rendering them inept and unfit for purpose.
Secondly, the government must ensure that Adv Matsoso is adequately resourced to transform the LMPS and enhance its crime fighting capacities. It all begins with proper training of officers and inculcation of a sense of professionalism across all of the police service’s strata.
Thirdly, the LMPS’s own internal self-correction mechanisms need strengthening to weed out corrupt and inept officers from its ranks. Fourthly, officers must be decently rewarded to dissuade them from their proclivities for bribery and corruption.
The fact that Adv Matsoso held a senior position in the LMPS over two decades ago, a time when the police service still had a semblance of sobriety and dignity and had not been wholly defiled by politics, should work to his advantage. He knows what needs to be done to restore it to that position.
Adv Matsoso’s former colleague, DCEO Director of Public Education and Corruption Prevention, Litelu Ramokhoro, was spot on when in a recent exclusive interview with the Lesotho Times, he advised the new police boss to resist being captured by politicians for his own sake and effectiveness.
With the advent of coalition governments since 2012, and the worsening factionalism in political parties, it became apparent that some politicians shamelessly clamoured to capture security agencies for their own ends. It became even more shameful that the heads of security agencies put themselves at the service of factions in these coalitions and individual political parties. The story of one Tlali Kamoli is illustrative of the destructiveness of the politicisation of state institutions.
We therefore appeal to Adv Matsoso to always keep his eye on the ball. Remembering that he was appointed to serve national interests and not those of the people who appointed him must become his second nature. For someone with so many impressive credentials, we trust that he will hit the ground running and outline his clear turnaround strategy for the LMPS and seek everyone’s buy-in.
It will then be left to Mr Matekane’s coalition to avail him with the resources to fight crime effectively.
Policing requires resources, from infrastructure, to vehicles, as well as modern technologies that enable the police to do their work.
The working conditions of police officers also require improvement.
Ombudsman Adv Tlotliso Polaki, recently published a report on the deplorable conditions the police work under. It’s equally unfair to demand the best out of people who work in conditions of squalor. The task ahead for Adv Matsoso is immense. It’s herculean. But he must succeed. The whole nation owes him a duty to support him. We wish him well.
