Six weeks ago, Lesotho Defence Force’s Major General Ramanka Mokaloba revealed that there were reports of death threats against procurement officers in Cabinet due to then ongoing investigations by parliament’s public accounts committee.
He also warned of more deaths should the government fail to provide the witnesses with protection.
“This process of investigating procurement officers is very serious. There are officers who have been killed and more are likely to die because clearly there is more that needs to be uncovered from procurement offices.
“Such matters should be handled with urgency and care and the witnesses should be protected.”
It looks like no one took him seriously.
On Sunday this week, the executive officer of the Disaster Management Authority, ‘Makhotso Mahosi, was murdered in cold blood at her home, along with her adolescent son, by unidentified gunmen.
Mahosi who was then the chief accounting officer DMA was a key witness before the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC), to answer questions on the alleged misuse of funds allocated during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.
The question is, “Who was she going to implicate who was so determine to cover their tracks that they resorted to eliminating her?”
We pass our condolences to the Mahosi family. We also condemn this barbaric act. If the authorities had heeded Major General Mokaloba’s warning, this unfortunate incident Could have been avoided.
We appeal to government to take steps to protect the other witnesses.
