SADC wants update report

staff Reporter

MASERU

THE SADC has asked Lesotho to prepare a progress report on the implementation of the Phumaphi Commission’s recommendations ahead of the regional bloc’s Double Troika Summit in two weeks’ time.

The report will also include progress on the political and security reforms recommended by SADC.

The summit will be held in Gaborone, Botswana, on June 28.

In a letter dated June 13 to Foreign Affairs Minister, Tlohang Sekhamane, the SADC Secretariat said it would “appreciate receiving the progress report by 17^th June 2016”.

That means the report should be submitted tomorrow.

“The Double Troika Summit will consider the political and security situation in the Kingdom of Lesotho, especially the implementation of Summit decisions,” the letter said.

“To this effect, you are requested to submit a progress report that will facilitate preparations of the meeting.”

Government officials of member states will arrive in Gaborone on June 27.  The Ministers’ meeting will be held on the morning of June 28, followed by the preparation of documents for the Double Troika Summit that will start at 10am. A communiqué will be released soon after the meeting.

Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili is expected to present the report but a decision is yet to be made on which ministers will be part of his delegation to the summit.

Sekhamane told thepost last night that the government is already working on the report and will meet the June 17 deadline but bemoaned the short notice given to prepare.

“What they are asking for is a report on the implementation of the SADC Commission’s recommendations. We are ready to do that,” Sekhamane said.

He said “tangible progress” has been made in the implementation of some of the commission’s recommendations. The progress report, he said, will be made public as soon as the prime minister has presented it to the summit.

“I cannot give value judgement on the amount of the progress made but what I can say is that there has been progress.”

The Justice Mpaphi Phumaphi’s commission recommended that the killing of Brigadier Maaparankoe Mahao by soldiers in June last year should be “vigorously” investigated and those implicated be prosecuted.

The police, the commission said, should be “empowered and resourced” to investigate the killing “expeditiously and comprehensively” and evidence should be surrendered.

One of the most explosive recommendations was the removal of army commander Lieutenant General Tlali Kamoli, whose reappointment the commission said had caused divisions in the army.

It said officers implicated in cases of murder, attempted murder and treason should be suspended pending investigations.

The commission further said Lesotho should implement constitutional, political, security and public sector reforms. It also recommended an amnesty for soldiers accused of planning to remove Lieutenant General Kamoli and kill 13 senior officers.

The summit is also expected discuss the return of three opposition leaders who have been living in South Africa since they fled Lesotho last year after alleging that their lives were in danger.

The leaders have been in exile for almost a year. Talks to facilitate their return collapsed after the government and the opposition failed to agree on what should come first, their return or the discussion on when Lieutenant General Kamoli will be removed.

Former Prime Minister Thomas Thabane has since vowed to remain in South Africa until the army commander is removed.

He has told the media that if the government insists on keeping Lieutenant General Kamoli, he will only return home under SADC protection.

Sekhamane noted that the summit is being held at a time when Lesotho’s relations with SADC and the international community “have gone back to normal” following what he called a “tense period” soon after the killing of Brigadier Mahao.

“I have noticed a dramatic change in the attitude. I can therefore say things are back to normal. There has been a lot of misinformation which has however been dismissed because it was quickly found to be false,” he said.

Foreign Affairs Minister Tlohang Sekhamane, Centre

Lesotho has been on a roller coaster since the killing of Mahao that triggered international condemnation and led to the appointment of the commission which later made the recommendations whose implementation will be the main theme of the summit in Botswana.

In January this year SADC came down hard on Lesotho for refusing to accept the Phumaphi Commission’s report on account that it was the subject of a lawsuit.

Lesotho eventually accepted the reports but lurched on to another crisis after it said it would cherry pick the recommendations to implement because the commission’s findings were not binding.

That was implemented, in some quarters, to mean the government was going to reject some of the recommendations.

Since then the government has been on a charm offensive to mend relations with SADC and the international community.

In February Deputy Prime Minister Mothetjoa Metsing visited Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi, chairperson of the SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation, for discussion on the Lesotho situation.