Call to charge police officers who killed student

MASERU – POLICE boss Holomo Molibeli should investigate officers who allegedly killed Kopano Makutoane during a violent strike at the National University of Lesotho (NUL) last June.

This is the recommendation from the Ombudsman, Advocate Tlotliso Polaki, in a scathing report he issued on Tuesday.

The Ombudsman has also recommended that the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Advocate Hlalefang Motinyane should prosecute the police officers who will be accused.

The report says the investigation and the prosecution should be done in the next three months.

Makutoane was allegedly fatally shot by the officers from the Roma police. The police are alleged to have used live ammunition.

The police management suspended several officers and promised to investigate the incident. But since then there has been no update on the investigation.

It is not clear if the officers have been charged or reinstated. NUL’s Students Representative Council (SRC) filed the case with the
Ombudsman’s Office.

The Ombudsman said the police should ensure that they attend to the scenes of crime and protests expeditiously and explicit timeframes are set out in their guidelines.

“The police should investigate and the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) should prosecute the officers who committed the killing, the 7 assaults and or attempted murders of 16 June 2022,” the report said.

It says the DPP should investigate whether or not the officers used excessive force and exceeded the bounds of self-defence.

Advocate Polaki said the police should have proper tools of the trade to sufficiently and efficiently undertake their mandate and serve the public expeditiously.

He recommended that both the Ministries of Police and Finance should “ensure that the LMPS is granted with sufficient funding for the procurement of such weaponry within 12 months”.

He said the police should establish policies that specifically speak to the protection of students at campuses to avert possible illegal and violent protest actions within six months of the report.

He said the police’s Special Operations Unit should have a presence at the Roma police station at all material times.

This has to support the LMPS officers and contribute towards ensuring that there is a non-violent students’ community that treads carefully before embarking on violent protest actions, he said.

“This unit should be set up at Roma within six months of the determination.”

The students’ strike, as is the case every year, emanated from the failure of the National Manpower Development Secretariat (NMDS), to pay their living allowances on time.

The Ombudsman said the NMDS should work towards a point where it contracts with students directly without getting tertiary institutions involved in the provisioning of lists.

This process, Advocate Polaki said, should be in place within a year of this report.

He recommended that the NUL and the NMDS should set clear expectations, establish deadlines for submissions and strictly adhere to timelines unless mutually modified in writing.

“This exercise should be undertaken alongside a review of their working relationship and an MoU which should be more practicable to achieve,” he said.

He said the NMDS should be overhauled or restructured and be repositioned to operate optimally with clearer levels of autonomy, agility and reporting lines within a year of his report.

“The discrepancies identified and the unfettered manner of managing the students’ bursary raises a lot of suspicion over mismanagement of the fund,” he said.

He referred the matter to the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Offences to investigate the use of the funds allocated to the bursary fund by the NMDS.

The Ombudsman found that the NMDS director general, Flory Rakeketsi, arbitrarily and capriciously decided to implement a decision that had not been approved by the Development Planning Minister.

The NMDS management, he said, acted in an unfettered manner and was guided by an abuse of discretion.

Rakeketsi had cut the students’ allowances to match their days at the college.

Nkheli Liphoto