LANCE Sergeant Mathebe Motseki has been suspended from the Lesotho Police Staff Association (LEPOSA) for allegedly threatening to kill another police officer. L/Sgt Motseki, the LEPOSA treasurer, has been suspended pending an investigation for her misconduct and violation of the association’s constitution.
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The suspension letter says after their meeting of December 10 last year, L/Sgt Motseki threatened to harm the association’s Maseru Region chairman, Sub-Inspector Lefu Thaele.
“During the meeting on the 10th December 2023, she uttered the prejudicial words that “Le tle le bone ka mor’a three months na ho tla be ho etsahetse joang ka Thaele le lelapa la hae. ’Na ha ke lla ke ntša likhapha motho oa shoa. Bashanyana bana ba ntella”.
The loose translation of this is “Wait and see what will happen to Thaele and his family after three months. When I cry and shed tears a person dies. These boys take me for granted”.
L/Sgt Motseki is also accused of sending WhatsApp audio clips of information reported in the LEPOSA national executive committee meeting without approval.
The information, the letter of suspension reads, had been reported by Sub-Insp Thaele.
The suspended L/Sgt Motseki told thepost that she is going to approach the courts to block her suspension.
“They have tried several times to remove me from that office so that they do as they please,” L/Sgt Motseki said.
She said the problems started when she reprimanded the association’s secretary general, Inspector ’Makatleho Mphetho, who had taken LEPOSA’s gun without permission.
“They do not like it when I call a spade a spade,” she said.
She added that many people who had stolen the association’s guns were once suspended and Insp Mphetho “is the only one left”.
“Why is she the only one left?”
L/Sgt Motseki said at one point she clashed with Insp Mphetho regarding some insurance schemes.
She said Insp Mphetho has at some point also “taken the association’s vehicles without permission”.
Moreover, she said she has also realised that the national executive committee has changed the office door locks to the treasurer’s office without her knowledge.
“Their main goal is to shut doors for me so that they go and loot the member’s contributions, they are committing a crime,” she said.
L/Sgt Motseki said she was suspended by a minority in the national executive committee “because they did not even form a quorum”.
“I never insulted anyone, Mphetho has been trying tirelessly to remove me from the office,” she said.
“I know the person they say I threatened but I never talked to him . . . They are fabricating a lot of stories about me, so that they get to the association’s funds to loot.”
She said this act of replacing her with an unelected person will ruin the association, and she blamed Insp Mphetho for all this.
Insp Mphetho told thepost last night that “it is not true that I stole any guns”.
“I am hearing this for the first time,” she said.
“It is not true that I am using LEPOSA’s cars. I drive my own car.”
Nkheli Liphoto
