’Marafaele Mohloboli
FORMER prime minister and All Basotho Convention (ABC) leader Thomas Thabane has threatened to leave the party soon if its national executive committee (NEC) does not reprimand Agriculture and Food Security Minister Tefo Mapesela for insulting him and his wife.
The sharp-tongued Mr Mapesela recently launched a broadside against the former first lady ‘Maesaiah Thabane and her husband in apparent retaliation to Ms Thabane’s own attack on First Lady ‘Mamusa Majoro.
Ms Thabane attacked Ms Majoro during an interview on a local radio station on Friday. During the interview, Ms Thabane, herself known for taking no prisoners, ridiculed Ms Majoro for celebrating Women’s Month calling it a foreign concept.
She said Women’s Month was not celebrated in Lesotho.
This attracted the rage of Mr Mapesela who recorded an audio which has been circulating on social media lambasting Ms Thabane. So brutal was the attack that he called her a “dunderhead” who did not know anything about Women’s Month because she was preoccupied with assaulting nurses and demeaning principal secretaries.
In 2018 ‘Maesaiah allegedly assaulted a doctor on call at Queen Mamohato Memorial Hospital for delaying attending to a patient who had been brought in by her bodyguards, who had hit him in a road accident. She also made headlines for publicly attacking “non-performing” public officials during her husband’s tenure as premier, which ended in May this year.
During her Friday interview, Ms Thabane also accused the new government led by Prime Minister Moeketsi Majoro of inconsiderately “oppressing the needy” by enforcing stiff Covid-19 regulations.
“We see people who know nothing about Covid-19 being given a platform to sensitize the nation yet they do not even have the slightest idea on health issues… It is quite absurd how people make senseless laws when they are in power. I wonder whether they ever think before making decisions,” Ms Thabane said in apparent reference to the government’s Covid-19 lockdown regulations which have imposed restrictions to curb the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Ms Thabane said her fund, the ‘Maesaiah Thabane Trust Fund, could not sit and watch while the government continued “hurting” people with restrictive laws instead of protecting them. The trust fund has in the past been involved in different charitable initiatives.
“Not that we are undermining the seating government. Instead, I humbly request that they (government) be lenient on us and let us do our job as a trust fund,” said Ms Thabane.
In retaliation, Mr Mapesela said Ms Thabane “genuinely doesn’t know about Women’s Month” because she bulldozed her way into the role of First Lady.
“… she just hopped on board. She will never be First Lady again. Leave Ms Majoro alone and let her work. She (Ms Thabane) should stay at home and wait for her trial,” he said referring to the anticipated Lipolelo Thabane murder trial in which Ms Thabane is one of the suspects. She is currently on bail over the charge.
“Stop dreaming about being the first lady. You are just a dunderhead,” Mr Mapesela charged.
He added: “She should just take her old man along with her and leave ABC. She should go and get cleansed, probably she is saying all these things because she is itching from the lice that she got from the holding cell”.
“…Leave our party with that old man of yours,” Mr Mapesela said.
On Tuesday, Mr Thabane also phoned in during a programme at the same station, and said he would soon leave the ABC because it was clear to him that the party’s NEC had sent Mr Mapesela to insult him and his wife.
“This utterance that I and my wife should leave the party was made on Friday and today is Tuesday and neither the NEC nor the prime minister have condemned him. This means that this person (Mr Mapesela) has been sent by the party’s authorities. Shortly, I shall leave (the party),” he said.
Although he was ousted as prime minister in May, Mr Thabane remains the leader of the ABC.
ABC spokesperson, Montoeli Masoetsa, this week said the NEC did not condone Mr Mapesela’s utterances. He said it was wrong for Mr Thabane to suggest that the NEC had sent Mr Mapesela to attack him.
“We heard Mapesela’s utterances and we are addressing that matter. We have in the past dissuaded our legislators from using social media to destabilise the party. It is therefore not true that we sent Mapesela to attack Ntate Thabane, who is also a member of the NEC.
“Sadly, Mapesela has in the past behaved in this manner even during Ntate Thabane’s reign. He (Mr Thabane) never reprimanded him (Mr Mapesela) and suddenly he is blaming us. That’s unfair,” Mr Masoetsa said.
Contacted for comment yesterday, Mr Mapesela said Ms Thabane was “silly”.
“That lady is silly. She is very silly, she needs to be told that,” Mr Mapesela said.
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