MASERU — Three ruling Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD) officials who earlier this month lost a case to compel the party’s national executive committee to hold a special conference have filed an appeal to have the judgment rescinded.
The three applicants are MP Rethabile Marumo, Ramahooana Matlosa who is the chairman of the LCD youth league in Maseru constituency and Ts’oeu Mokeretla, who is the MP for Mashai constituency in Thaba-Tseka district.
They claim in their papers which were filed at the Court of Appeal on Thursday that High Court judge Justice Kelello Guni erred when she dismissed their application on September 9.
“The learned judge erred or misdirected herself in holding as she did by dismissing an application brought by appellants on the basis that the appellants had no locus standi,” the say in their papers.
They say the judge misdirected herself by dismissing the application on the basis of lack of urgency.
The three argue that the judge ought to have held that since the issue of urgency had been disposed of before Acting Judge Gabriel Mofolo, the issue of urgency no longer arose when the application was brought before her.
“Furthermore the learned judge ought to have held that because the application had been postponed by agreement of the parties on several occasions, the issue of urgency no longer arose,” the three said.
They also say the judge misdirected herself with regards to the proper interpretation of Clause 5.2 of the party’s constitution.
In her judgment Justice Guni said the applicants had no locus standi to bring the application. She also ruled that the three had failed to show that they had a peculiar interest in the case.
Speaking to the Lesotho Times on Tuesday, Matlosa said they had serious problems with Justice Guni’s judgment.
He said the five individuals who originally launched the application in the High Court were deemed to have locus standi and their application was not challenged.
“The judge did not go into the merits of the case to respond to our application.
“We want the Court of Appeal to pronounce itself on the issue raised by Justice Nthomeng Majara by saying that if we wanted to get rid of the committee we could not discriminate against other members by sparing the leader and his deputy because they form part of the entity, which is the NEC.
“So we went back to the drawing board and reviewed our position which resulted in us enlisting the support of the 17 constituencies to call for a special conference,” Matlosa said.
“Oddly enough, we are now being told that we don’t have locus standi to sue on behalf of the constituencies hence the inconsistency I am referring to.”
