Moorosi Tsiane
MEDICAL doctors’ consultation rooms are supposed to be safe spaces for their patients, where the sterile walls and medical charts symbolise professionalism. However, this has not been the case for the embattled Dr Hlalele Mofubelu of Naledi Family Clinic, who has allegedly been sexually harassing his patients.
Some of his victims have come forward to share their stories with the Lesotho Times.
Victim one
A 43-year-old Maseru woman, Alinah Mpholo, is among the numerous women who claim to have been sexually harassed by Dr Mofubelu.
What began as a routine medical consultation quickly spiraled into an unsettling ordeal when Dr Mofubelu allegedly moved Ms Mpholo’s underwear sideways to touch her privates.
“It was sometime in 2022 when I visited his clinic due to back pain. The consultation started with a short interview about my symptoms. After explaining my situation, he instructed me to remove my clothes and get onto the examination bed. He began moving my legs towards my chest, asking whether I felt any pain. At the time, I genuinely thought he was examining me—after all, he is a doctor, and he should know better.
“But then, he took both my legs towards my chest, moved my underwear to the side with one hand, and told me to cough. Stupidly, I did as he asked, though I felt incredibly uncomfortable because I couldn’t understand how this was related to my back pain,” Ms Mpholo recounted.
Dr Mofubelu then proceeded to touch her private parts, which shocked her. He immediately instructed her to get off the examination bed, stating that they were done.
“He ended by touching me, and that’s when I instinctively pushed my legs down. I looked at him in shock, and he just told me to get off the bed because we were finished.”
Felt molested
Ms Mpholo said she left the consultation room in a state of shock, struggling to process what had just happened.
“I felt like a little girl who had just been molested by an adult, unsure of who to tell or how to even express what had happened. I was so confused and shaken. I couldn’t even question him—I just left the clinic, unable to make sense of it all,” she said.
After the examination, Dr Mofubelu recommended that she gets an X-ray. However, due to her growing distrust, she chose to have it done at a different clinic and sought a second opinion from another doctor.
“I was supposed to take the X-ray results back to him for further examination, but I no longer trusted him. Instead, I went to a different doctor, a foreigner, who interpreted the results. To my surprise, he didn’t even touch me. He simply asked me to stand and bend forward to assess my mobility. He found nothing on the X-ray and suggested further tests,” she said.
Medical Council report
After consulting with the second doctor, Ms Mpholo came to the conclusion that she had been sexually harassed by Dr Mofubelu. She decided to lodge a complaint with the Medical, Dental, and Pharmacy Council of Lesotho. However, she says the case never gained traction as she was continuously given the runaround.
“I concluded that Dr Mofubelu had acted inappropriately and filed a complaint with the medical council. Unfortunately, the matter never progressed—I was constantly sent from one office to another. Every time I followed up, I was given different excuses. The last update I received was that the case had been handed over to their lawyer. The lawyer later called me, saying they would assemble a disciplinary panel to interrogate the matter.
“But by the end of that year, I got pregnant, and I eventually stopped pursuing the case.”
Fear of further humiliation
Ms Mpholo never reported the incident to the police, fearing that doing so would only subject her to further humiliation.
“I didn’t report it to the police. It’s something I’ve only discussed with friends and decided to brush off. I’ve learned that in Lesotho, if there was no penetration, the police don’t take such cases seriously. I didn’t want to expose myself to more humiliation,” she said.
She is not the only one
Ms Mpholo is not the only alleged victim of Dr Mofubelu. Two other women also shared their harrowing experiences with the Lesotho Times.
Mary Poorteman’s account
Ms Mpholo appears not to be the only victim of the purported doctor, as two other individuals have come forward to share their harrowing experiences with Dr Mofubelu.
One of them, Mary Poorteman, recounted her ordeal, explaining that she had consulted Dr Mofubelu after experiencing severe lower abdominal cramps.
“Sometime between 2014 and 2015, I went to see Dr Mofubelu. I was undergoing fertility treatment from a doctor in Bloemfontein and had been trying desperately to conceive. When I started experiencing these cramps, I became worried that something was wrong. Instead of going to my usual doctor in Bloemfontein, I rushed to him.
“I get chills every time I talk about this. The doctor inserted his fingers into me, insisting that I needed to undress so he could check for an infection. At the time, I was desperate and naïve, so I obliged. He put on gloves and then began rolling his fingers vigorously inside my vagina.”
She described leaving the clinic feeling violated and deeply traumatised. However, like Ms Mpholo, she never reported the incident to the police.
“My mind kept telling me that what happened wasn’t normal—no doctor had ever done that to me before. Even for a Pap smear, they use medical instruments. He didn’t explain anything; he simply commanded me to lie down and undress. I left feeling so dirty. I cried so much. When I got home, I took a shower and cried even more. That experience traumatized me,” she said.
Another anonymous victim
Another woman, who preferred to remain anonymous, recounted a similar experience from early 2022.
“I went to his clinic thinking I was pregnant after missing my periods for five months. After an ultrasound confirmed I wasn’t pregnant, he insisted on inserting his fingers inside me, claiming he was conducting further tests,” she said.
She alleged that he continued the procedure until he became visibly aroused.
“The way his finger was moving inside me, I could tell it was no longer medical but sexual. When I confronted him, he pretended to be shocked and quickly ended the examination,” she said.
She further alleged that Dr Mofubelu followed her to the toilet afterward.
“Luckily, when he arrived, I had already finished peeing, and I stormed out of the toilet. I left that surgery with a heavy heart, feeling raped and confused about whether that had really happened,” she said.
Her sister later revealed she had a similar encounter with the doctor when seeking treatment for migraines.
Mofubelu dismisses the allegations
In his defence, Dr Mofubelu dismissed the claims, calling them an act of sabotage by disgruntled patients whose personal expectations were not met.
“I am a highly professional person, and I respect the confidentiality of my patients. What you are referring to is merely an attempt by a few individuals to sabotage me after their personal interests were not fulfilled. When that happens, they resort to spreading lies to tarnish my reputation.
“I do not want to sound unprofessional by responding to such matters. There is a lot I know about the person you are referring to, as she has been actively writing about me on social media, but I choose not to engage,” Dr Mofubelu said.
Legal Battle
Dr Mofubelu is now embroiled in a heated dispute with the Medical, Dental, and Pharmacy Council of Lesotho over the renewal of his Retention Certificate, which authorizes him to practice.
The Retention Certificate grants a registered Council member the right to practice as a medical practitioner, dentist, or pharmacist and to have their professional practice licensed by the Principal Secretary of the Ministry of Health, in accordance with the Public Health Order of 1970.
Dr Mofubelu has petitioned the High Court, accusing the Council of unlawfully refusing to grant him the Retention Certificate for the 2022/23 financial year and subsequent years. He is seeking a judicial review of the Council’s decision, arguing that it is irrational, unreasonable, irregular, unlawful, and invalid.
According to his own court filings, the Council found him guilty of sexually harassing a patient, Rabohlokoa Raphoolo, around June 2022.
He has since challenged the disciplinary proceedings, contending that the committee was improperly constituted by the Council’s president and vice president. He claims that the refusal to issue his Retention Certificate is an act of retribution for his previous actions.
Efforts to obtain a comment from the Council were unsuccessful. This reporter was asked to leave contact details with assurances that Council President, Dr Makamole Lelimo, would return the call, but that never materialised. Additionally, Dr Lelimo’s mobile phone was unavailable.
