. . . corruption and money laundering charges dropped
. . . paving way for appointment of new head for the anti-graft body.
Bongiwe Zihlangu/‘Marafaele Mohloboli
SUSPENDED Directorate on Corruption and Economic Offences (DCEO) Director General Mahlomola Manyokole has agreed to a settlement with the government, enabling it to appoint a new head of the crucial body as it moves to try and implement its electoral pledge to fight endemic corruption and looting of the public pursue.
The two sides struck a deal this week during a meeting between Advocate Manyokole and Prime Minister Sam Matekane and his deputy Nthomeng Majara. Justice Majara is also the Minister of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs.
Under the terms of the deal, the new government has agreed to drop charges of corruption and money laundering that had been hanging over Adv Manyokole’s head since February 2021.
It will pay him his terminal benefits plus the remainder of his contract which was set to end sometime next year.
Adv Manyokole’s departure from the anti-corruption body paves way for the appointment of a new substantive head to give it the oomph to do its work.
Adv Manyokole this week confirmed to the Lesotho Times that he had struck an exit deal with the government.
He however, would not go into the finer details of the agreement saying it was confidential.
“I have formally separated with the Government of the Kingdom of Lesotho by mutual consent,” Adv Manyokole wrote in a WhatsApp message to this publication.
He said he was happy that the new government had agreed to give “me all my dues.”
The deal had saved the government and him a lot of “unnecessary expenditure” as they fought endless battles in the courts, he said.
“It was amicable. I must commend them (the new government) for distancing themselves from personal and political battles.
“This marks the end of the ordeal that my family and I endured personally for a two full years,” Adv Manyokole said.
“Things have fervently worked for my good. In addition, it would be very remiss of me not to applaud His Majesty, King Letsi III’s government for holding out an olive branch to me.”
He said he would be “forever grateful to Almighty God” for having granted him an opportunity to serve Basotho in the high office of director general of the DCEO “which is meant to prevent and combat corruption for the betterment of the lives of our people”.
Adv Manyokole also wished his successor well and appealed to all Basotho to support him or her in making the fight against corruption a success.
Highly placed sources this week said after cutting a deal to pay off Adv Manyokole and let him go, the government was now set to appoint the former acting head of South Africa’s Asset Forfeiture Unit (AFU) Knorx Mollele as the new DG of the DCEO.
Advocate Mollele is expected to assume office on 1 February 2023 to avoid creating a lacuna at the DCEO as it intensifies its drive to fight graft.
“For the government to appoint Adv Molelle, it had to cut a deal with Adv Manyokole, who was on suspension and to pay him off,” a source said.
Adv Molelle on Tuesday refused to speak on his appointment when contacted for comment.
“I will not talk about it. I don’t want to talk about it,” Adv Molelle told the Lesotho Times before swiftly cutting the call.
Sources were adamant that he was now headed to Maseru to lead the DCEO. No one could officially confirm the appointment at the time of going to print last night.
Adv Molelle attended Prime Minister Matekane’s October inauguration and sat in the VVIP section. Critics are adamant that he is a “bad appointment” on account of what they describe as his “chequered and tainted” past.
Adv Molelle, a former KwaZulu-Natal head of the Asset Forfeiture Unit (AFU), was in November 2020 placed on suspension by South African Justice Minister, Ronald Lamola.
The suspension stemmed from the appointment of curators in two separate cases in which the South African state was trying to claw back public money lost to that country’s state capture project involving the infamous Gupta family during the egregiously corrupt reign of former president Jacob Zuma.
Adv Molelle was accused of gross misconduct and negligence in his handling of the cases, losing the South African government millions in pointless litigation.
According to News24, the first case related to R1 billion in fees paid to multi-national consultancy firm, McKinsey & Company, by Eskom.
Trillion Capital Partners – a South African financial advisory firm with close links to the Gupta brothers – were paid R600 million in fees as Mckinsey’s “supply development partner”, the news outlet says.
In 2018, when a lawsuit brought by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) loomed large, McKinsey voluntarily paid back their fees to Eskom.
Even though these funds were already “secured”, News 24 reported, Adv Molelle was steadfast in appointing a firm of Durban-based curators to try and get the funds back. This was a pointless exercise as the money had already been recovered and the curators would claim fees for essentially doing no work.
The other case that would cause his suspension was that of the tainted Estina Dairy farm scandal.
The Free State provincial government had bankrolled the Estina project to the tune of R220 million but only a mere R2 million was spent on the actual farm meant to empower poor black dairy farmers. The rest was stolen by the Gupta family and their associates with some of the money being used to fund a plush family wedding at Sun City.
Adv Molelle led the asset recovery arm of the NPA when it instituted action against the Gupta family and their companies in connection with the Estina case. Again, he was accused of unlawful conduct in his dealings with the curator appointed to recover the stolen money, causing immense prejudice to the state.
The NPA would later confirm that it had reached a “confidential” agreement with Adv Molelle that he would leave the prosecuting authority. It had originally wanted him fired.
Critics of his appointment said his record at the NPA would taint his role if he indeed takes over the DCEO on 1 February 2023 as expected.
Meanwhile, Adv Manyokole has denied claims by some legal sources that it was actually him who had recommended Adv Molelle for the position of DCEO DG as the two have “come a long way”.
“It was not me at all who recommended him to the government.
“Adv Molelle was working in South Africa and he is an expert in the field (of prosecutions).”
Adv Manyokole said he believed Adv Molelle would be an asset to Lesotho and the country could learn a lot from him given his wealth of experience.
Adv Molelle had trained DCEO lawyers and members of the country’s judiciary in the past, he said.
“I have no doubt he will do wonders if he is appointed and given the support he needs,” Adv Manyokole said.
Adv Molele was born in Lesotho but has spent most of his adult life in South Africa.
Adv Manyokole’s tenure was short-lived after his appointment by Prime Minister Thomas Thabane in July 2019.
When Mr Thabane was replaced by Dr Moeketsi Majoro in March 2020, the later instituted moves to fire Adv Manyokole, initially suspending the latter in January 2021.
Adv Manyokole’s appointment to the helm of the DCEO had never been warmly received in some sections of the legal fraternity with Adv Manyokole being labelled as ‘Maesaiah’s appointee in reference to the wife of Mr Thabane, who was said to wield power over her husband. She allegedly determined appointments to key state positions. Adv Manyokole’s supporters dismissed the claims as sour grapes by those who had wanted the top DCEO job but failed to get it.
Shortly after his suspension, Mr Manyokole had in February 2021 been arrested and charged with money laundering, corruption and abuse of power over several cases involving the Victoria Hotel, which the DCEO had put under curatorship.
He was charged alongside DCEO Chief Asset Recovery Litigation Officer Peter Matekane, former DCEO intern Relebohile Lesholu, Ikhetheleng Matabane and Matsobane Putsoa both of M Putsoa and Associates as well as Mr Matabane’s Mokorotlo Communications.
The quintet first appeared before Maseru Magistrate Nthabiseng Moopisa on 26 May 2021 who charged them with 24 counts of corruption, theft and money laundering.
The charges largely stemmed from the Victoria Hotel saga wherein Adv Manyokole had instituted an investigation into alleged money laundering and corruption by Sobita Investments’ late owner, businessman Thabiso Tlelai, who had leased the hotel from the government since 2002 until his death last year.
In June 2020, Adv Manyokole had successfully petitioned the High Court for an order to place the hotel under curatorship.
The application was granted by Judge Molefi Makara after the anti-graft body argued that the late Mr Tlelai’s Sobita Investments had been unprocedurally awarded the lease by the then Pakalitha Mosisili-led government and had failed to pay M60 000 monthly rentals since 2002.
Adv Manyokole had then appointed a curator- M Putsoa and Associates – to run the hotel.
Adv Manyokole was accused of conniving with the curator he had appointed to steal money from the hotel.
He was also accused of irregularly appointing M Putsoa Associates as the hotel’s curator in the first place as the company had been deregistered by the Lesotho Institute of Accountants (LIA) in 2016. It was therefore ineligible for that task.
Mr Manyokole and his alleged accomplices had, among other charges, been further accused of embezzlement and theft when they used M11 532, 47 from Victoria Hotel to pay for M Putsoa and Associates’ membership fees to the LIA to give the curating firm a new lease of life and legitimise its appointment in retrospect.
M Putsoa and Associates had on the other been accused of committing fraud by misrepresenting itself as a company lawfully conducting business when it had long been deregistered, in addition to other
Adv Manyokole had exchanged harsh words with Dr Majoro and then Law and Justice Minister Nqosa Mahao. He had described Professor Mahao and Dr Majoro as “crusaders of corruption”. He alleged they had suspended him because he had been probing them for corruption.
A three member tribunal appointed by Dr Majoro in December 2020, led by retired judge Teboho Moiloa, to probe Adv Manyokole’s fitness to hold office never really got off the ground after he had challenged its legitimacy in the High Court.
The new Matekane’s government decision to drop all these cases against Adv Manyokole and buy out his contract ends all the long drawn out battles, enabling it to try and restore stability at the DCEO.
The DCEO is crucial to fighting endemic corruption yet it has been a playground for politicians, disabling it from performing its constitutional mandate.
