Mohalenyane Phakela
FIRED Water and Sewage Company (WASCO) Public Relations Manager, Lineo Moqasa’s woes are mounting.
After losing her job, she has been slapped with a M5 million defamation lawsuit by the very same man she accuses of sexually harassing her, the parastatal’s CEO Thelejane Thelejane.
Mr Thelejane is demanding the mouth-watering figure because Ms Moqasa had “scandalised” him via the sexual harassment allegations.
Mr Thelejane rubbishes all the sexual harassment allegations in his High Court petition this week.
Ms Moqasa is the only respondent in the civil suit.
Mr Thelejane dismissed the allegations as “false” and “fabricated”. Ms Moqasa had only raised them to avoid disciplinary action.
“The plaintiff specifically pleads that the serious ramifications of this wrongful, malicious and or injurious acts were to be felt by himself (sic) as he subsequently became the subject of debate in a print newspaper headline of the Lesotho Times which is widely circulated in the country.
“The defamatory and or untruthful allegations of his sexual harassment misdeeds became the subject of public debate and ridicule and he has consequently been lowered in esteem.”
Mr Thelejane says he had been portrayed as a “sexual predator”, which he insisted he was not.
Mr Thelejane further argues Ms Moqasa had ignored WASCO’s internal grievances procedure by penning a letter directly to Natural Resources Minister Mohlomi Moleko over her allegations.
“It was a tactful measure employed by the defendant to seek political refuge in a political functionary without following the prescribed procedures at the WASCO…..
“The letter of complaint is wanting in detail and vaguely articulated without the specific details of dates when the alleged acts of sexual harassment or romantic propositions were made. What becomes apparent is that they surface when the defendant was supposed to face disciplinary action.”
