Keiso Mohloboli
Staff Writer
LESOTHO Times reporter, Keiso Mohloboli, who has quit her job and fled the country fearing for her life, has spoken for the first time about her ordeal which has forced her to leave her motherland.
Media Institute of Southern Africa- MISA Lesotho Director Tsebo Matšasa confirmed Ms Mohloboli’s evacuation from Lesotho to a place of safety in a media alert this week.
Ms Mohloboli’s departure follows the near fatal shooting of her editor Lloyd Mutungamiri on 10 July 2016 as he arrived home around midnight after finishing the Lesotho Times’ sister newspaper, the Sunday Express.
Ms Mohloboli spoke to the Lesotho Times from her new base in a regional country yesterday. She said her safety had become untenable after penning the lead story in the 23 June 2016 edition of the newspaper under the headline “Exit Strategy for Kamoli”.
She was hauled from a hair salon later on the day of publication to a police station for some heavy interrogation. Ms Mohloboli says she was asked to reveal her sources to the story and was also asked other questions about the story but could not readily answer them as they were not part of the published story.
Even though Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili had revealed in Parliament that the government was talking to Lesotho Defence Force (LDF) commander Lieutenant-General Tlali Kamoli to find an amicable way forward in light of a SADC recommendation that he be relieved of his duties and in light of the international pressure backing such a call, what seemed to have hit a raw nerve of the interrogators was a claim in the story that a substantial payout to Lt-Gen Kamoli was being proposed as part of the exit strategy. The Lesotho Times has since retracted that payout claim.
Ms Mohloboli says she was then told she would not be released unless she complied with requests put before her to reveal her sources about the payout claim. She says she was also directed to publish a public apology in the Lesotho Times and Sunday Express to Lt-Gen Kamoli and copy the same to the Commissioner of Police Molahlehi Letsoepa.
She was subsequently released despite an earlier threat that she wouldn’t.
“Surprisingly, I was on the next day 24 June 2016 summoned to Mabote Police station. This time with the Editor Lloyd Mutungamiri for further interrogation. This was before we could publish the apology as directed,” said Ms Mohloboli.
“We were not interrogated together and from the same room, so we did not know how the other had been questioned. But during my interrogation, I was told that the apology asked earlier was not enough and they (the interrogators) wanted me to reveal my sources.”
“I stuck to my guns and said there was no way that I could ever reveal my sources. Professional and ethical considerations forbade me from doing so and under no circumstances would I ever reveal my sources….,” said Ms Mohloboli, adding her dogged determination to abide by the ethics of his profession appeared to have miffed some of her interrogators.
Ms Mohloboli said she had also tried to insist that she be interrogated in the presence of a lawyer but to no avail.
“They (interrogators) said I would not be allowed to seek any legal advice on the matter or engage my lawyer until I had disclosed my source or sources. I was also accused of having written the ‘Scrutator’, column of that week which one furious interrogator said was very disrespectful of the army commander. I was told that the ‘disrespectful’ tone of the column (against Lt-Gen Kamoli) resonated with the front page story and it was clear that the two pieces had been written by one person, me.”
Ms Mohloboli was later released after the second interrogation but was told that the police investigations were still ongoing and she wasn’t off the hook.
But Ms Mohloboli said what really scared her was the information she received from her sources warning her that she, Mr Mutungamiri and Publisher and CEO of the Lesotho Times Basildon Peta, would be subjects of a possible hit.
“Without implicating any security agency or anyone by name, I have sources who told me that my life, Basildon’s and Lloyd’s were in grave danger. This was before Lloyd’s shooting.
“My sources advised me to tell Lloyd and Basildon that we must leave Lesotho but I didn’t believe them. Me and Lloyd were particularly vulnerable because we live in Lesotho while Basildon does not live here,” said Ms Mohloboli.
She says her sources alerted her that there was a vehicle assigned to monitor their movements particularly during their deadline days on Wednesdays and Saturdays when it’s generally known that staffers on both newspapers work late into the night and also leave the office late.
“Reality only dawned that my sources were right after the attack on Lloyd….,” said Ms Mohloboli.
“I believe it had been difficult for them to trace me because I don’t have a car and an obvious means of transport ……Since my home was attacked earlier in January, I had also on many times stayed away with relatives. Since Lloyd’s attack, I stopped staying at my house completely.”
She said the attack on Mr Mutungamiri had taught her not to take anything for granted.
“There are always people who know what is happening and sometimes may not agree with what they know or what is planned…..If they come out to assist with information…it is always helpful to listen….With hindsight, I should have taken the information from my sources more seriously…,” she says.
Ms Mohloboli said it was hurtful that some people abused social media to exemplify their lack of empathy over the ordeals of others.
“People who say on social media that I staged an attack on my own house to seek attention and who say I am a drama queen should be ashamed of themselves…. When there was a break in at my house….I dealt with the matter privately. I never made a public announcement to that effect. I am a woman working in a very difficult and risky profession…..All I care for is to do my work to the best of my ability. …”
