Blind woman wins M500 000 compensation

MASERU – THE Ombudsman, Advocate Tlotliso Polaki, wants parliament to force the government to pay M501 543 to a blind Quthing woman after she lost her property almost 20 years ago.

The Ministry of Agriculture demolished Nonotice Memane‘s house and built its own in her yard in Maqokho, Quthing district, in 2004 without her consent.

Advocate Polaki says despite numerous directives to compensate Memane, the ministry has refused to comply.

He now wants parliament to intervene and compensate the woman.

The Ombudsman has directed that Memane should be paid M501 543 as compensation for her loss.

In a report sent to parliament this week, Advocate Polaki found that Memane’s three houses were demolished by the Ministry of Agriculture to pave way for the construction of the Agricultural

Resource Centre without her consent and knowledge.

He found that the sickly Memane was not at home but living with her son in another area after she became partly blind and in her absence the local council and the chief reallocated her property to the government.

Advocate Polaki said her son, Dingilizwe, said no one was at home when the ministry took over the property. He had taken his mother to hospital.

He went to Maqokho to find out from the authorities what had happened. He was told by members of the local council that they did not know what had happened for the ministry to take his mother’s site.

When he approached the contractor he told him that he only got a contract to build on the site and knew nothing more.

The village chief told him that the ministry said they he had given consent, despite that the property did not belong to him.

He was advised to go to the higher council at Tele.

From the discussion, it shows that the Tele council’s secretary, Lebeoana Makoa, was the one who said the site was allocated to the council by the family.

In Lesotho chiefs no longer allocate land but it is the duty of the local community council.

“Dingilizwe asked which family was being referred to, but he was not given a clear answer on that aspect,” the Ombudsman said.

“He requested to see the relevant documents but Lebeoana (Makoa) informed him that they had been sent to the head office in Maseru,” he said.

“He stated that the council refused to give him the minutes of the meeting in which the issue of the site was discussed.”

Dingilizwe then proceeded to the Quthing District Council and later to the District Administrator where he was advised to sue.

Dingilizwe did not have documents proving his mother’s ownership of the property but he told the Ombudsman that he was the fourth generation from the family member who was first allocated the site.

He further stated that as far as he could remember no one had Form Cs in that area.

A Form C is a document proving ownership of land.

He brought one Motsamai Ralepolesa as his witness who confirmed that the site belonged to his parents and to their parents before them.

Ralepolesa was born in 1942 and he told the Ombudsman that Dingilizwe’s father had inherited the property from his parents who had also inherited it from their parents.

Ralepolesa was able to narrate Dingilizwe’s genealogy to the Ombudsman.

The ombudsman’s further investigations led to the area chief of Ha-Tlatlametsi, Chief Maama Mashapa, who said he was the one who allocated the site to the ministry “after consultation with some family members”.

Chief Mashapa told the Ombudsman that he had decided to allocate the site to the ministry after it had rejected the one he had given on grounds that it was too remote from the community.

He said he consulted Dingilizwe’s uncle, Moeketsi Memane and his wife Mathonzi who told him that Memane had no problem with the site being allocated to the ministry.

He also said the homestead was derelict, which Dingilizwe disputed saying there were three houses on the site and they had furniture and other household items inside.

The Ombudsman found that the household items found in the house were kept with some relatives when the ministry demolished Memane’s houses.

The Ombudsman’s final finding was that “nobody came forward claiming that the site in question did not belong to the Memane family” except the ministry.

“The complainant’s assertion was more convincing that the site belonged to his mother even though there were no legal documents to that effect,” the report reads.

He also found that the local community council unlawfully reallocated the land to the ministry.

Parliament is expected to direct the Minister of Agriculture, Thabo Mofosi, to abide by the Ombudsman’s findings and compensate Memane.

Nkheli Liphoto