Lesotho’s asset recovery unit shut down after implicating top officials

Lesotho’s Government Assets Search and Recovery Task Team reported to Parliament a month ago on evidence of widespread corruption and implicated senior government officials. It has now been disbanded. Archive photo: Sechaba Mokhethi

• Lesotho’s asset recovery unit has been disbanded as “not properly gazetted”.
• The unit’s shut down comes a month after it revealed irregular land allocations to senior officials, including Deputy Prime Minister Nthomeng Majara, former ministers and judges.
• The unit also found 97 of 1,601 government plots were transferred to private individuals under suspicious circumstances, and only 987 of 1,579 government vehicles could be accounted for despite Engen records showing nearly 3,900 fuelled under government contracts.
• The government insists the team will resume its work after gazetting, but critics fear it may never return in its current form.

Lesotho’s Government Assets Search and Recovery Task Team, set up to trace and recover looted state assets, has been abruptly disbanded after uncovering irregular land allocations that implicate the prime minister, his deputy, former ministers and judges.

The Prime Minister’s office announced on Monday that the unit had been disbanded because it was “not properly gazetted”.

The move has sparked outrage among activists who see it as an attempt to stop the unit’s investigations.

Lucy Borotho, director of public relations in the Prime Minister’s office, said the government realised “the committee was not gazetted to perform this job”, and it would be reconstituted after the “requisite gazetting procedures” were completed.

In the meantime, all 11 members from the defence force, police, security service and key ministries are to return to their former jobs.

The unit commenced work in March 2023, tracing state vehicles and land and illegally occupied government houses. Its recent findings, however, appear to have hit too close to the corridors of power.

Questionable land allocations

Among the team’s most explosive discoveries was the allocation of prime government plots to senior officials under the guise of “public interest” development.

Documents reviewed by the team suggest that former Minister of Local Government Pontšo Sekatle may have irregularly used Section 51 of the Land Act of 2010 to allocate land to now Deputy Prime Minister Nthomeng Majara, then serving as a judge. This law allows the minister to reallocate land for public interest development purposes only.

Other senior officials possibly benefiting from the such allocations include former ministers Mamphono Khaketla and Mpeo Mahase Moiloa, Independent Electoral Commission commissioner Karabo Mokobocho, and Justice Maseshophe Hlajoane.

This was revealed at the task team’s progress report at parliamentary portfolio committee hearings a month ago.

Portfolio committee member Makhahliso Mosoeunyane said that senior official names had been removed from the initial report and only reinstated after the committee refused to accept an edited version. “Why were they removed if everything was done correctly?” she asked.

The unit said the land allocations were presented as “compensation for service to government”. Parliamentary committee members questioned both the legality and fairness of this criteria.

Lands Commissioner Masebele Mponye confirmed that the allocations gazette cited the “public interest” clause meant for development projects, not individual benefit.

The unit said the allocations violated the Land Act of 2010, which repealed a 1979 law allowing discretionary allocations to individuals by the minister.

Political interference

The unit had also alleged cases of illegal occupation, including that of businessman Gong Gan Quan, director of Chuye Construction, who was found living in a government house at Maseru West.

Gong claimed his company retained rights to the property through a subcontract with Anhui Construction, the firm that built the new State House in 2019, and even demanded R2-million in “compensation” for supposed developments on the site.

The unit’s deputy chairperson Moepana Kopo told Parliament that Gong later admitted the occupation was unlawful, but efforts to evict or arrest him were thwarted by political interference.

“Minister [in Prime Minister’s Office] Limpho Tau and [Minister of Communications] Nthati Moorosi ordered his release and reprimanded us, saying we should ‘leave the Chinese man alone’,” Kopo said.

Widespread corruption

Before its dissolution, the unit had compiled evidence of widespread mismanagement of state property.

Of 1,601 surveyed government plots, 97 were found to be transferred to private individuals under suspicious circumstances.

Out of 1,579 government vehicles, Fleet Services could only account for 987, yet Engen Petroleum records showed nearly 3,900 vehicles fuelled under government contracts, with over 3,000 active at one point.

The Public Accounts Committee has also demanded reports from the unit on allegations that MGC Park was unlawfully built on government land. MGC Park is a multi-storey office building in Maseru that serves as the headquarters for Matekane Group of Companies, founded by Prime Minister Matekane.

On 2 October, Deputy Principal Secretary for Cabinet Tšeliso Lesenya was asked by parliamentary committee member Tšeliso Nkoefoshe if the government really needed this unit, as it was thwarted by the same ministers who set it up.

Lesenya assured Parliament that the team would continue its job.

“It has become clear that there is a lot of work to be done, and they have to complete their investigations, submit their report to the minister, who will then present it to the cabinet,” Lesenya said.

The government insists the team will resume its work after gazetting, but critics fear it may never return in its current form.

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