Moleleki lashes Phamotse

MASERU – SOME divorces are messy.
Even after the separation is finalised some partners cannot move on and they remain bitter.

Such is the case of the Alliance of Democrats (AD) leader Monyane Moleleki and his former secretary-general Mahali Phamotse.
Moleleki is still seething four weeks after Mahali defected to Sam Matekane’s Revolution for Prosperity (RFP).

Moleleki appears to have made peace with the defections of other senior party members but Mahali’s migration has touched a raw nerve.
On Sunday he held a rally in Phamotse’s Matlakeng constituency.

Phamotse failed to win the constituency in 2017 and had to be accommodated in parliament through the proportional representation system.
The AD had however hoped that she would have a good shot at winning the constituency in October.

For the past five years, she had been canvassing as an AD member in the constituency.
Her defection to the RFP has however shifted the dynamics.

The RFP, a new party, suddenly has a seasoned politician that Moleleki thinks he mentored.
Moleleki’s visit to the constituency was probably a desperate rescue operation. An attempt to claw back some of the shine that Phamotse had carried to the RFP.

Ever since 2017 Moleleki and Phamotse had been holding annual football tournaments in their constituencies with Matekane.
Moleleki said he and Phamotse worked hard for six years in the constituency.

“Where was Matekane, now that he comes into the picture when we are left with only six months before elections?” Moleleki said.

“Matekane open your eyes. Matekane, I tell you, this English figured woman has a sweet tongue, she will betray you one day,” he warned.

He said Basotho are not for sale to rich people.

“We must stand up and show our businessmen that we love and respect them, but we cannot be sold to them in a paper bag,” he said.

“It cannot happen that someone can just promise to sell the AD to Matekane in a paper bag.”

He said he has been friends with Matekane for the past 15 years but he never sold his party to him.

“I am not jealous of him, I love him and I respect him,” he said.

He said he always tells Matekane that he is trying as he has not yet reached the level of other rich men in the world.

“While traveling the world I saw people who are richer than Matekane.”

Moleleki said he is worried that the RFP is a party of rich people.

“Soon they will form a party of chiefs and certain churches, it scares me when our businessmen separate themselves from the people.”

“Soon will be sold to someone with more money than Matekane”.

Nkheli Liphoto