THE Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) is locked in a fierce fight with the government over the ownership of a building near the State House in Maseru West. The tussle started after the government ordered the IEC to vacate the fourth floor of the building to make way for a cluster of security agencies. The basis of that order is that the four-storey building, which the IEC has since christened ‘Election House’, is a national security risk because it overlooks the State House.
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The IEC has however refused to vacate the floor, arguing that the order violates its independence.
Matters however escalated when the IEC claimed to own the building. As pressure intensified the IEC sought the intervention of the sub-committee of political parties some of whose members are said to have been disturbed by the government’s order.
Justice and Law Minister, Richard Ramoeletsi, has however refused to back down, claiming that it is the government that owns the building through the Ministry of Finance.
“The government is the one that has allowed the IEC to use part of that building. We agreed that they should not use the upper part,” Ramoeletsi told thepost.
Prime Minister Sam Matekane’s spokesperson, Thapelo Mabote, has added to the confusion by claiming that neither the IEC nor the government owns the building.
Mabote told thepost last night that the government is still negotiating to buy the building from the “Indian owner who built it’’.
He dared the IEC to produce “any written document that shows they bought the building”. “They don’t have those documents,” Mabote said.
So the question is who owns the building?
thepost’s search for the answer began by establishing who initially owned the building. The person that Mabote and Ramoeletsi refer to as the “Indian owner of the building” is Arif Mohammed, who describes himself as Indian in company documents.
Mohammed is the sole director of Homestead Holdings, the company that built the building. Mohammed, who is listed as a director of at least 20 companies, however, doesn’t own shares in Homestead Holdings which was registered in 2008.
It is wholly owned by Amani Investment which was incorporated in August 2023 and whose only director is one Ayaaz Mukarab Khan.
In addition to Amani Investment, Khan, who describes himself as an Indian in company documents, is listed as a director of nine other companies.
Khan however doesn’t own any shares in Amani Investment.
The company is wholly owned by the Karim Family Trust.
Apart from owning Homestead Holdings, Amani Investment has shares in ten other companies. It appears to have acquired that shareholding in all those companies on May 1 this year.
The Karim Family Trust has shares in 23 companies. Homestead Holdings’ initial plan was to partition the building into apartments. But that changed when Mohammed was approached by the IEC which was desperate for a new home after giving notice at the MGC Building, Matekane’s building where it had been the anchor tenant for years. After weeks of negotiations,
Mohammed agreed to sell the building to the IEC for M77 million.
However, just as the deal was about to be finalised Mohammed is said to have told the IEC that he was pulling out because he was under pressure from a minister he didn’t name.
On January 8 this year, the IEC called a meeting of political party leaders to complain that it was being blocked from occupying the building. Ramoeletsi was at that meeting and gave his assurance that the IEC would be allowed to move into the building while negotiations were finalised.
In mid-March, the government approved the decision to buy the building. In late March Ramoeletsi granted the IEC approval to buy the building.
And on April 2, the IEC transferred M77 million from its Standard Bank Account to Homestead Holdings’ FNB Account. Ramoeletsi however tells a completely different story.
He says it is the government that started negotiations to buy the building. The IEC, he says, only started its own negotiations with the owner much later. The minister says the government’s negotiations were motivated by security considerations.
“International laws do not allow for big buildings to be near the State House. We approached the owner a long time ago while that building was under construction because we saw it as a security threat.”
Ramoeletsi said they made it clear to the owner that the building’s height is not acceptable because it overlooks the State House.
“We even went to court and the judge told both parties to sit and negotiate a settlement,” he said.
“We agreed with the owner to finish the building and later sell it to the government of Lesotho.”
Ramoeletsi says they bought the building through the Minister of Finance.
“We were later told by IEC about their interest in that building and we told them that they would occupy it for a period of time while we still prepare to build one for them.”
He argued that the office is not suitable to house such a big institution as the IEC as there is no parking space.
“The IEC knows that it is there temporarily as it did not have money to buy the building from the owner”.
He said the IEC’s claim that it bought the building with the money left over from the 2022 elections is false.
“The government’s money is returned to the consolidated fund when not used. The IEC does not have money.”
The IEC Director of Elections Mpaiphele Maqutu was reluctant to be interviewed but he had earlier told the media in interviews that the IEC bought the building.
He said the same at the meeting with the sub-committee of political parties.
He insisted that allowing security agencies to move into buildings would violate the IEC’s independence.
He reiterated the same message in his June 14 letter to all political party leaders.
In another twist to what is already a complex story, Mabote, Matekane’s spokesman, said the government gave the owner an option to either demolish the building or sell it to it “because it was built without the building permit” and was a security risk.
He said it was agreed that the government would buy the building instead of it being demolished.
He said the IEC and the government then agreed that the commission would temporarily occupy the building.
“It was agreed that all security agencies, not limited to the police, the army or the NSS, would use the building because it posed a threat to the State House.”
Mabote said he was present at the State House when the issue was discussed at a meeting that was attended by the prime minister, commissioners of the IEC, as well as Ministers of Justice and Law, Local Government and Finance.
He said the meeting was requested by the commissioners to discuss their urgent need for offices.
Mabote said that meeting agreed that the IEC would use the building temporarily while the government seeks means to find a suitable one for it.
He said it was agreed that the IEC building should not be close to residential houses to avoid too much intermingling with the public where it can be seen to be politically influenced.
Nkheli Liphoto
