- As acting DG is accused of running the vital institution into the ground
- It thus cannot be relied upon to help end rampant crime
Staff Reporters
MANY have questioned why the National Security Service (NSS) is unable to gather useful intelligence to help prevent rampant murders and other violent crimes plaguing the country.
The simple answer – as established by the Lesotho Times through painstaking investigations – is that the NSS is in total paralysis and has become increasingly unfit for any purpose.
Our probe has proved that the NSS is a security agency in crisis with demotivated staff, meagre resources to be effective, and intelligence gatherers not working in tandem with their bosses.
So distrustful are some intelligence officers of their bosses that they would rather not share whatever they would have gathered in the field for fear their information will be leaked and end up in “wrong hands”.
This because some of the bosses are suspected of being “double agents” who are not focused on protecting the national interest.
Protocols of gathering, processing and handling sensitive information to protect the national interests have gone mute at the NSS.
Without a viable intelligence service, staffed by competent, well trained and well-resourced staff and overseen by a competent leadership, the war on crime will only get lost, our sources tell us.
Part of the problems at the NSS are legacy issues, caused by politicians who used security agencies for politicking.
But at the centre of the present paralysis of Lesotho’s intelligence service is its Acting Director General Lebohang Mafisa.
NSS insiders accuse him of further running the institution into the ground since he was appointed as Acting Director General for a three month period from 1 April 2024 pending the search for a substantive DG to replace Pheello Ralenkoane whose contract had expired.
Mr Mafisa has since been appointed Acting DG for a further three months after the lapse of the initial three, as the search for a substantive replacement continues.
Morale in the NSS is at an all-time low, the Lesotho Times can authoritatively reveal.
Upon assuming office, Mr Mafisa immediately set on consolidating his power and targeting officers who had been seen as loyal to Mr Ralenkoane, his former boss with whom he is said to have had poor relations.
Mr Mafisa’s first act, sources tell us, was transferring Human Resources Director, Vusi Mbole, to the post of director security and replacing him with one Nomalinge Tlakeli.
This caused a lot of consternation in the NSS. Mr Mafisa’s critics accused him of making the move to facilitate the removal or redeployment of people who were close to Mr Ralenkoane in favour of Mr Mafisa’s own loyalists.
“There was simply no rationale of removing the HR director (Mbole)….It was all for him to smoothen the deployment of his blue eyed boys into strategic positions in anticipation that he will be confirmed as substantive DG….,” our mole told us.
“Unfortunately, any organisation in which merit is ignored in favour of loyalty to the boss becomes ineffective….”
After appointing his “ally” Ms Tlakeli as HR director, Mr Mafisa immediately instructed her to seek a hefty acting allowance for himself, according to documents seen by the Lesotho Times.
This was despite that Mr Mafisa’s appointment letter, also seen by the Lesotho Times, stating that he was being appointed Acting DG on his current conditions of service as Deputy DG (Operations).
Even assuming that Mr Mafisa had a legitimate expectation to ask for some form of extra remuneration as Acting DG, it appears the hefty amounts he wanted for himself – as shown in correspondence to treasury – were a bit out of kilter.
More alarmingly, after he was appointed Acting DG, Mr Mafisa
disarmed some NSS personnel and took away their guns and vehicles, leaving them unable to perform their tasks.
Sources tell us that most of the disarmed officers were from counterintelligence.
“His reason of disarming the officers was that he suspected some of them were involved in a plot to kill him. But it was all childish paranoia….
“He did not have to take such a drastic step! How does he expect these officers to do their work without resources? There was no evidence that anyone in the NSS or elsewhere wanted to assassinate him…” a senior source said.
The Lesotho Times understands that some of the guns have since been returned to the officers but not the vehicles.
The move had caused a lot of disquiet as NSS officers cannot do their work without resources, particularly vehicles.
“The biggest problem in the NSS is that morale is too low as of now. Intelligence officers are scared to do their work and provide intelligence because they don’t even trust the bosses…,” one source said.
“They fear leakages of that information and that it will end up in some wrong hands…
“Intelligence information must be credible and have proper safeguards to protect it against any leakages. Intelligence officers must have confidence that their output is not abused. It must be used to protect the national interests only. That is not what is happening at the NSS…”
Mr Mafisa is also accused of favouring his loyalists for foreign trips, with anyone seen as having been close to Mr Ralenkoane being sidelined.
One such recent trip to China for intelligence training was stopped by the Principal Secretary for a group that Mr Mafisa had selected.
Mr Mafisa is also accused of “stubbornness and arrogance” after he had, as Deputy DG, refused to sign for the purchase of some cyber equipment required by the NSS. It was only purchased after he had been pressurised to sanction it.
“There was no reason for him to refuse to sign in the first place…. It was just because of his arrogance….”
Unless and until the NSS is properly resourced and able to work as a cohesive unit with proper professional leadership, Basotho should not expect anything from it, the sources tell us.
“In fact, criminals don’t take it (NSS) seriously. No one takes it seriously…. So, those who expect it to infiltrate famo groups and pre-empt their criminal actions…. You will remain disappointed. It won’t happen…,” said an authoritative official.
The All Basotho Convention (ABC) recently berated the NSS over its inaction while famo gangs run riot across the country, killing and maiming hundreds of people.
The ABC directly attributed the violent killings and other crimes rocking Lesotho to the lack of a competent intelligence service capable of detecting and preventing crime in advance.
ABC spokesperson, Mphonyane Lebesa, called for the NSS
to be strengthened to become capable of gathering effective intelligence to prevent criminal activities before they occur.
But from what we have been told, the NSS is in crisis, and nothing should be expected from it.
In fact, Acting Director General Mafisa had told the Lesotho Times last month, that the responsibility to prevent famo inspired killings lay with the police, not the NSS, as it was a law and order maintenance issue.
That statement alone was not only tragic, but it confirmed what our sources told us that the NSS – as presently constituted – is not fit for purpose.
The duty of any credible intelligence service is to gather intelligence to protect citizens from any external and internal threats. Lesotho faces no major threats from external forces except transnational criminals.
“If it is his (Mafisa) view that the NSS should not be concerned with gathering evidence to help police intelligence in combating crime, then that summarises why the NSS is a joke…
“That should also explain why the famo gangsters are laughing all the way to the morgues to dump the bodies of their many victims. They (famo gangsters) simply don’t take both the police and the NSS seriously……,” said another high level source.
Hundreds of Basotho have been killed in the last few months. Prime Minister Sam Matekane – who is in charge of the NSS – has lamented the fact that Lesotho is now ranked among the top five most homicidal nations in the world.
After the government announced a ban of the famo groups in May 2024, the move appears to have in fact emboldened them. Their killing rampages have not only intensified but have become more daring with several mass shootings reported in the last 60 days.
Yet there is absolutely nothing to show from the country’s main security agencies -the police, the NSS and the army – in terms of trying to get ahead of the criminals.
Their visible efforts have been random harassments and assaults of civilians causing an upsurge in civil suits against the law enforcement agencies. The NSS in particular has been missing in action. There is no justification for its existence.
The Lesotho Times sought an interview with Mr Mafisa and he had promised us one. We wanted him to answer a detailed list of 15 questions including accusations from some of his juniors that he has become friends with an opposition leader (name supplied) whom he keeps informed through a proxy.
That opposition leader had been at severe odds with Mr Ralenkoane.
We even deferred publishing this story last week to give Mr Mafisa time to sit down with us after he postponed the interview saying he had to rush out of town.
Subsequent repeated efforts by our reporter, Mohloai Mpesi, to reach him failed as he was no longer answering calls.
As and when we are able to reach Mr Mafisa, we will publish his response, if any, in detail.
As of now, we are obliged to inform the nation not to expect anything from the NSS in the way of help in ending rampant crime which threatens to collapse an already comatose economy as investors vote with their feet.
Trade, Industry and Business Development Minister Mokhethi Shelile, told us last week that investors scared by crime were closing shop and leaving.
The Lesotho National Development Corporation (LNDC) has also spoken of how rampant crime was deterring investors.
With an equally comatose NSS, led by a paranoid man, more interested in protecting his position, the omens can only remain bleak.
