Time for a new broom at LMPS

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There is no denying that under his tenure, the Lesotho Mounted Police Service (LMPS) had become a byword for brutality and incompetence.
It would however be a gross mistake to think that the LMPS will change direction simply because Molibeli is gone. A new boss is not the magic bullet that will fix the LMPS.

What needs to change at the LMPS is the whole culture of policing. The Matekane government will need to metaphorically “burn down” the whole structure and build anew. It will need to reform the LMPS, lock, stock and barrel.

Molibeli alone was not the problem. He simply inherited a system that was rotten.
As the head of the LMPS, Molibeli however had a chance to steer the organisation towards a new path, a new culture, which he dismally failed to do.

Instead, what we saw over the last seven years was an escalation in police brutality. The police became notorious for brutalising suspects to extricate confessions. That was Molibeli’s biggest flaw.

As a political appointee, Molibeli also appeared too overzealous to please his political masters. He was in charge when Tšeliso Mokhosi was brutally tortured in 2017.
A video of Mokhosi being assaulted by his officers did a lot to damage the image of the police in the eyes of the public.

We are not surprised that the LMPS has had to deal with mounting lawsuits from tortured suspects.
Molibeli was also in charge when a student at the National University of Lesotho was shot and killed during a protest. The police officer who pulled the trigger has still not been prosecuted.

That of course gave the impression that Molibeli was protecting rogue officers.
But perhaps his biggest mistake was when he appeared, together with other security agency bosses, threatening to stop a parliamentary process to oust Matakane through a no-confidence vote.

He had no business dabbling in a political dispute. Molibeli and his two accomplices simply crossed the line.
While all this was going on, violent crime was on the increase in Lesotho, aided by the use of thousands of illegal guns in the hands of criminals. The famo music killings did not subside.

Lesotho now holds the dubious record of being the third most violent country in the world. Molibeli must take a large part of the blame.
There is no doubt that Molibeli’s tenure has been an unmitigated disaster. Yet we would be naïve to conclude that the appointment of a new boss will be the magic bullet that will fix the LMPS.

The new boss will not simply walk in and clean up the mess just because she is now the boss.
The new boss will likely face the same set of challenges that Molibeli had to deal with unless she is strong enough to instill a robust change of culture.

Dr Mahlape Morai, who was appointed acting commissioner last week, only has three months to demonstrate that she is fit for purpose. That may be too short a period to have any meaningful impact.

But she must do all she can to drive that process of change.
Dr Morai must start by weeding out rogue officers and revamp police training curriculum so that it is un line with modern policing trends.