Mokhothu’s famo gangs dilemma

MASERU – FAMO gangs are known for brutal killings. They have killed their opponents and even their families.
They can be hired as hitmen. Their music is laden with explicit lyrics that insult and eulogise violence.

It is therefore logical for politicians to greet them with a ten-foot pole.
They are the kind of people whose support you might crave but you should never openly associate with.

They are a toxic company that brings serious reputational damage to anyone who either embraces or tolerates them.
Yet, given their numbers, they bring votes.

All it takes is the leader’s instruction on which political party to vote for and they will all troop to the polling stations.
So how does a politician keep a healthy distance from them without alienating them?

The Democratic Congress (DC) leader and Deputy Prime Minister Mathibeli Mokhothu must have agonised over that dilemma.
His solution is a novel one.

He is embracing the gangs but making it clear that only those who are good deserve to be in his arms.
That is a tricky distinction to make for organisations as notorious as Terene.

But Mokhothu is risking it all by playing a delicate balancing act.
He is appealing to Terene’s desire to be accepted as a peaceful organisation only tainted by rogue elements it does not control.

That is the tone Mokhothu used when he spoke at the funeral of Terene leader Ntei Tšehlana on Saturday in Qhoalinyane, Qacha’s Nek.
Mokhothu said when he sees famo gangsters he does not associate them with any crime. Instead, he said, he sees smart men and women in gang regalia.

He said most of Terene members “are not monsters or criminals”.

“When I see you, I see men and women who are dressed well and who love what they do,” Mokhothu said.

“The issue of your blankets’ colours should not be seen as trouble,” he said, after condemning the police for instructing Terene members who would attend Tšehlana’s funeral to not wear their gang insignia.

He added that Seakhi members’ lives too should not be made difficult because of the colours of their blankets.
Seakhi is Terene’s rival for years. They have fought countless bloody gang wars.

“What can make them criminals is when individuals do not part ways with crime not the colour of blankets they wear,” he said.

“Wearing the yellow Terene and Seakhi members’ blankets is not a crime,” he said.

It has become an unwritten law for the police to instruct famo gang members to attend funerals of their comrades without wearing their symbols, citing that the sight of the regalia itself triggers violence.

Since the mid-1990s there have been incidents of deadly gun battles at funerals both in Lesotho and South Africa.
Lately, the fights would either between the Terene and Seakhi gangs or factional wars within the gangs themselves.

The famo gang violence can be traced to the mid-90s when mourners were often sprayed with bullets in Lesotho as well as in South Africa.
The police, especially in Mafeteng district where much of the gangsters come from, have become wary of the wars and started denying them their rights to wear their gang symbols when attending funerals.

The genesis of the fights can be traced to the battle for control of illegal gold mines in South Africa. Those fights over turf often spill over into Lesotho where entire families have been wiped out.
But Mokhothu says the police should focus on what the gangs do and not how they dress.

“The security institutions should chase people because of what they did and not because of their affiliations,” Mokhothu said.

Mokhothu’s words appear to indicate a change of tact in the way the DC relates with famo gangs.
His predecessor, former Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili, was more circumspect about his relations with the gangs.

One never knew whether he dined with them or not.
That Mokhothu, his protégé, is singing a different tune is a sign that times have changed.

It is a political game.
But Mokhothu’s carefully picked words at the funeral leave him room for plausible deniability.

If things get out of hand, as they usually do, he can say it is the bad apples in the groups.
He would say he never embraced gangsters that kill and maim.

In fact, he could say he is working with them to help them reform.
At the funeral, Mokhothu urged the gangs to hanker for peace “because the DC is a peaceful party”.

He promised to help famo gangs if the DC wins the October election.

“We will stand with you after taking the government,” he said.

“We have already hired some of you to help raise their families.”

Tšehlana, who was being buried on Saturday, had gotten himself a job at the Ministry of Home Affairs which is notorious for dishing out jobs to party functionaries.
Mokhothu pledged to work with gang leaders to find peace and help them earn a proper living.

“These people who are killing you are only left with four months … they will sleep outside (teleha),” he said.

He said Basotho will vote wisely and his government will reform the police service to “a level where they will be able to differentiate between killers and people who just form groups”.

“We will do everything in our power to fight this dinosaur that is killing you.”

He told the Terene gang that they “dress well and should do well”.
He blamed the killings on some people who are in the government saying they incite the violence, calling on the National Security Service (NSS) to “find men and women in uniform who take part in these acts”.

He said they always pay from their pockets to repatriate corpses of gangsters from Gauteng to Lesotho.
He urged the security institutions to work harder to combat the gang killings.

“The issue of corpses of Terene members that are repatriated home means the security institutions must work harder to end them,” he said.

He said the killings give him sleepless nights.

“I want to see them building beautiful houses like Tšehlana’s.”

He said he wants to see the gangs walking freely in their own country, “without being chased away”.
He said the police “must protect every Mosotho, rich or poor, regardless of their status”.

That’s Mokhothu, the politician, avoiding rocking the boat during election time.
Anyone who can deliver votes should be accommodated.

Nkheli Liphoto