MAJOR General Matela Matobakele has been named as one of the soldiers who allegedly tortured a man who is now demanding millions in damages from the government. Major General Matobakele is implicated in a letter of demand that Liteboho Mahloana’s lawyers sent to the Attorney General this week.
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Mahloana is demanding M5 million for the “serious bodily harm and disability, pain and injury to his dignity” he claims to have suffered when the army arrested him in July.
The army wanted him to produce a gun he insisted he didn’t have.
Mahloana claims he was then detained and tortured for days until his desperate wife, ’Maleseli, obtained a High Court order to get him released.
Mahloana’s lawyers, NJ Chambers, tell the AG in the letter that their client identified Major General Matobakele as one of the soldiers who tortured him.
“Among a group of soldiers who tortured him he recognised Major General Matobakele,” the lawyers said.
While it is not unusual for the army to be sued for millions for torture it is rare for a senior officer to be named as one of the perpetrators of torture.
The lawyers said Mahloana was arrested by soldiers on the morning of July 4.
They said he was taken to the Mokota-koti Army Camp in Peka, then to Makoanyane Barracks before being admitted at the Makoanyane Military Hospital.
“They kicked and beat him with melamu (fighting sticks) breaking his legs and arms,” Advocate Makopi Lesaane said in the letter.
“This is a crime against humanity in terms of our Penal Code Act of 2010.”
Advocate Lesaane said their client argues that the soldiers who tortured him were acting in their official capacity as LDF members on duty.
The government, he said, is therefore liable for their actions.
He said the letter of demand serves as a notice and would file summons without further notice if his client’s demand is not honoured within 30 days.
The letter has been copied to the Commander of the LDF, Lieutenant General Mojalefa Letsoela and his deputy, Major General Matobakele.
The army received it on Monday.
The pictures of Mahloane went viral on social media after the army released him following the court order.
In her habeas corpus application, ’Maleseli told Justice Fumane Khabo that the army abducted her husband at their home in Lekhalong, Leribe, and she did not know where they kept him.
“My husband is not a soldier and the army has no jurisdiction over him, as he cannot commit any military offence,” Maleseli said in her affidavit.
’Maleseli said she learnt that Mahloana was at Makoanyane Barracks and when she went there on July 8 she was informed that he was at the military hospital.
She went to the hospital where she was told that her husband had been transferred to Queen ’Mamohato Memorial Hospital. She then rushed to Queen ’Mamohato Memorial Hospital but was told that he had never been admitted there.
She also told Justice Khabo that one Thapelo Mpiti told her that her husband was at the Makoanyane Military Base in Maseru and was “tortured by the soldiers, unable to speak as a result and that he might die”.
When the army finally released him following Justice Khabo’s order, Mahloana had broken arms and legs.
Majara Molupe
