Assets recovery unit shut down as top officials implicated

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, reports GroundUp. The Prime Minister’s office announced last 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 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 implicated in the looting, are to return to their former jobs. The unit commenced work in March 2023, tracing state vehicles, land and illegally occupied government houses. Its recent findings, however, appear to have hit too close to the corridors of power. 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 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 benefitting from the allocations include former Ministers Mamphono Khaketla and Mpeo Mahase Moiloa, IEC 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.

Full GroundUp report