DEPUTY leader of All Basotho Convention (ABC) Professor Nqosa Mahao has vehemently denied allegations about internal strives within the party’s National Executive Committee.

Mahao said recent reports on social media platforms about his clashes with the party’s Secretary General Lebohang Hlaele are a smear campaign intended to damage the party image and cause divisions within members.

In an exclusive interview, Mahao told Metro about a certain reporter from a local media house who is in cahoots with some disgruntled ABC members whose intention is to split the party.

“This reporter that I am referring to never publishes anything positive about the ABC,” he also said.

He further shot allegations about holding a leadership campaign meeting in the Thupa-Kubu Constituency sometime in April, saying he only went there to visit a friend of his.

He said what was discussed at that meeting had nothing whatsoever to do with the ABC and its leadership, adding that they only discussed development issues in respect of the government.

He expressed his astonishment at the fact the reports about the meeting only surface now when the get-together had actually been held in April.

“I am aware that the journalist is working with an ABC Member of Parliament to tarnish the good name of the party,” he said.

He made an assurance that there is harmony within the party NEC, warning the media to refrain from publishing false and controversial articles about the party for the sake of maximising their profits.

For his part, Hlaele said the reporter in question never bothered to get Mahao’s side of the story before he published his article.

“I always question the distinguished reporter’s credibility, as he appears to have taken knives out to cause chaos and division within the party ranks,” Hlaele also said.