MP in nasty estate fight

MASERU – THE battle for the late Chaltin Tsatsanyane’s estate has turned nasty.

Last week, Mokherane Tsatsanyane, Chaltin’s son who is also a Democratic Congress (DC) MP, allegedly pointed a gun at a director of a company that his father once controlled.

The incident happened at the Manonyane Bus Stop, a property at the centre of the estate dispute between Tsatsanyane and his younger brother Moorosi.

Tšepang Phangoa, the director of the Lesotho Public Motor Transport Company which owns the Manonyane Bus Stop, claims Tsatsanyane pointed a gun at him during a heated argument.

Phangoa, who was a co-director with Chaltin, said he has filed a police report against Tsatsanyane.

He said Tsatsanyane claims that the building and the company belong to his late father.

Phangoa said Tsatsanyane was there despite a court order barring him from the premises.

Phangoa said he had visited one of the shops on Friday when some men wearing military regalia approached the shops trying to cut a padlock at one of the shops at the centre.

“We had a brawl as I stopped those men from cutting the chains,” Phangoa said.

He said it was during that fracas that Mokherane arrived and pointed a gun at him.

“He came straight to me and tried to fight me physically,” Phangoa said, adding that Tsatsanyane pulled his spectacles and threw them away.

“I have opened a case of assault against him.”

A video seen by thepost seems to corroborate Phangoa’s version of the events.

Tsatsanyane can be seen holding a gun and shouting at Phangoa.

“You know I do not care about the s**t court orders. Come out so that I give you your mother,” Mokherane says in the video.

Mokherane says now that his father is dead he will not allow any man to act like his father.

As tempers flared, a small crowd thronged the centre to watch the spectacle and three officers arrived.

Two weeks ago a Maseru magistrate issued a warrant of arrest for Tsatsanyane of contempt of court after he violated a court order by visiting the building.

In the video clip, Tsatsanyane is heard referring to the court order as “some little s**t”.

Tsatsanyane told the police that he came to the building after he heard that his brother, Moorosi, was there.

“The court order has barred us from coming here, him and I,” Tsatsanyane said to the officers.

“I only came here because I heard that he had come.”

In the video, Moorosi told the police that his brother is not supposed to be fighting because the company that owns the building is not owned by their father but by the Lesotho Bus and Taxi Operators Association (LBTOA).

Moorosi said Tsatsanyane wanted to capture the company owned by the association yet his father had left Phangoa as the director.

“There is a new court order that says my brother should be arrested,” Moorosi said.

Tsatsanyane retorted by telling the officers that he went to court after hearing about the warrant of arrest but “no one wanted to attend to my case”.

Moorosi however told the police that Tsatsanyane’s case did not proceed because there were no prosecutors at the Maseru magistrate’s court.

Tsatsanyane also said that morning (last Friday) he had been at the police commissioner’s office to discuss “these issues”.

The police advised Phangoa to open a case.

Chaltin, who died of a Covid-19 related illness late last year, did not leave a will stating how his vast estate should be distributed.

His estate includes a vehicle repair workshop, a textile factory, a radio station, and a vast property portfolio in Maseru.

He also had several sites, developed and undeveloped, in Maseru city.

Nkheli Liphoto