Sekata fights back

MASERU – EMBATTLED Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD) secretary general, Teboho Sekata, wants the High Court to interdict party leader Mothetjoa Metsing from suspending him until his case has been heard.

This comes after Metsing last week penned a hard-hitting letter to Sekata where he accused him of dragging the party’s name through the mud.

He said Sekata’s claims that he was plotting to kill him had soiled the image of the party in the eyes of the public.

Metsing told Sekata to explain why he should not be suspended from the party’s national executive committee.

In his court papers filed this week, Sekata said Metsing was not qualified to suspend him since he has a personal interest in the matter.

“I wish to state further that in fact there is a far more sinister motive behind the institution of the disciplinary measures against me,” Sekata said in an affidavit.

He said the LCD is yet to hold an elective conference for members of the national executive committee and a circular has been circulated in the constituencies calling for nominations of candidates.

“Although the official nominations from the branches are yet to be submitted to the (national executive committee) to verify which candidates have been nominated to what position, (Metsing) is aware that branches of the party have openly declared their support for me in various senior positions,” he said.

“I am aware that (Metsing) does not want me to compete in the said elective conference and he wants to ensure that I loose (sic), hence the institution of these disciplinary measures, barely a month in the lead up to the general elections.”

Sekata told the court that he is aware that Metsing had been holding meetings telling LCD members not to nominate him for any position in the national executive committee.

“When that failed, because some constituencies are resolute in their support for my candidature, then came the allegations that (Metsing) was conspiring to kill me,” he said.

He said when he reported this to the police Metsing responded with a letter inviting him to state reasons why he could not suspend him from the national executive committee.

“This is clear abuse of power and it cannot be countenanced by the courts of law.”

Sekata told the court that Poulo Letuma, the Butha-Buthe constituency secretary general, told him that he was invited to Tsikoane at the home of the deputy leader Tšeliso Mokhosi where a plot to assassinate him was hatched.

He said Letuma said Metsing recalled that the party had squabbles when Keketso Rantšo, who defected to found her own Reformed Congress of Lesotho (RCL), was still the LCD secretary general.

He said Metsing also recalled that there was still a problem when Selibe Mochoboroane, who jumped ship to form the Movement for Economic Change (MEC), was the party’s secretary general after Rantšo.

He said Letuma revealed that Metsing said Sekata should never see the coming elective conference, saying he would “see the conference through the cracks of the grave” (o tla bona seboka ka paka tsa mabitla).

Letuma also allegedly said Metsing said Sekata would be carried flat on his back in his own constituency (ke tla bona seboka ke phesha ka mokokotlo) which suggests that he would be in a coffin.

He also told the court that one member who was at the Tsikoane meeting at Mokhosi’s home, Motebang Masike, went on air and publicised that Metsing had expressed a desire to kill Sekata.

Sekata said because of these things Metsing has a personal interest in the case he wants to institute against him at the party level.

“He cannot complain about the matter, lodge the matter with the NEC, and then turn around and ask me why he cannot suspend me over the very same issue.”