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June 8, 2021

STAFF REPORTER

3 min read

Human rights body slams Moseneke

Human rights body slams Moseneke

SADC Facilitator's representative to Lesotho and retired South African deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke

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JUSTICE for Peace and Solidarity has taken a swipe at the SADC Facilitator’s representative to Lesotho, Justice Dikgang Moseneke, accusing him of failing to help the country find lasting peace.

The human rights advocacy association has also slammed the Lesotho government along with the retired South African deputy Chief Justice for “frustrating the legal processes” in the murder cases of among others, the late army chief, Lieutenant General Maaparankoe Mahao, Police Sub-Inspector Mokheseng Ramahloko and Police Constable Mokalekale Khetheng.

The body also shows that the murders of the above mentioned are the primary reasons behind the political instability prevailing in Lesotho.

“We have entered this phase in the relentless roll of the wheel of justice, owing to a collective push of the citizens of good conscience, in the midst of a furious assault from some dubious forces led by South Africa's retired deputy Chief Justice and SADC Facilitator's representative, Judge Dikgang Moseneke to frustrate and throttle this process, in the name of finding a lasting peace for our long suffering nation.
“In a clear breach of his explicit mandate to ensure prompt, transparent and seamless implementation of the SADC decisions for prosecution of theses cases and comprehensive national reforms, by his own admission, Justice Moseneke has held no fewer than four meetings with representatives of the government and written at least two unusually scathing letters to government and SADC in spirited efforts to dissolve these cases, over the five months leading to April 2021.
“The tabling of the deceptively named bill for a National Peace and Unity Commission to replace the courts in handling these cases is clearly the fruit of such arm-twisting encounters and a last ditch attempt to fish these suspects out of the pool of charges they are facing, under the excuse that these threaten Reforms and national peace, while this is done despite the fact that these cases have been on track for nearly four years in the atmosphere of uninterrupted national peace and the smoothly proceeding reforms,” the association says in a statement released this week.
 

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It further notes that it is not enough that these “machinations are based on unbridled falsehoods woven by an alliance of similarly charged former rulers, the SADC envoy and lone European ambassador”.
It says that alone will not make these” wicked tricks” go away but need collective campaigns of appealing to upright lawmakers, “the National Reforms Authority whose mandate is being usurped by the SADC envoy blackmailing” the government of Lesotho, the church and civil society of fair conscience, political leaders as well as the international community with which Lesotho has entered into a compact of conscience for materialisation of these reforms and banishment of impunity.
The organisation also says that the current challenge might be the darkest hour yet since the transition of four years ago, but “surely if the country holds steadfastly enough, a great dawn is upon it and all forces of progress must stay together to defend the ground and complete this highly threatened conquest of good over evil”. LeNA

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