By Matṧeliso Phulane
Public confidence in the police is at an all-time low, with the men and women in blue being frowned upon for both brutality and corruption.
This is according to the results of a survey by research network Afro barometer, which were released on September 23. The timing of the report is raising eyebrows survey as the survey was conducted between February and March this year.
It shows that 71 percent of respondents say the police force torture and abuse people in their custody.
More than half of the citizens believe that the police force is the country’s third most corrupt public institution after members of parliament and the Office of the Prime Minister.
The report found that citizens were worried about the Lesotho’s homicide rate, which is the worst in Africa and the sixth highest in the world.
“Nearly nine in ten Basotho 88 percent believe that the homicide rate in the country has increased over the past five years,” the report said.
Compared to five years ago, more people say the force has become increasingly corrupt. Which leads to 52 percent of citizens saying that ‘most’ or ‘all’ police are corrupt – the third worst rating among 13 institutions and leaders the survey asked about.
Only one-third, 33 percent Basotho say they trust the police “somewhat” or “a lot”. The share of citizens who says they do not trust the police at all has climbed to 20 percent points since 2017.
Almost half – 48 percent – say the police routinely use excessive force in managing protests while 44 percent say they often or always stop drivers without good reasons. But 79 percent consider it likely that they police will take reports of gender-based violence seriously.
Most citizens give the government poor marks on reducing crime by 85 percent and addressing or preventing homicides.
In comparison to 2017, the level of corruption, the report claims, has risen by 20 percent.
It’s also mentioned that 71 percent of respondents say the police “often” or “always” abuse or torture people in their custody.
This perception is supported by the fatal shooting of a National University of Lesotho student on 16 June this year.
The Lesotho Mounted Police Service apologised for this in a press statement but so far, no one has been held accountable.
About managing public protests, such as the National University of Lesotho demonstration, “almost half, 48 percent say the police routinely use excessive force in managing protests”.
A previous damning report on human rights violations in Lesotho, which was released by the US showed that unlawful killings and torture by the security agencies had become the order of the day.
The 2021 report was released by the United States department of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Lab.
It stated that, major human rights issues contained include credible reports of: unlawful or arbitrary killings, torture and cases of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, harsh and life-threatening prison conditions, arbitrary arrest or detention, serious government corruption, lack of investigation of and accountability for gender-based violence.
For the better part of 2022, the kingdom’s police commissioner, Holomo Molibeli has been fighting a move by Prime Minister Moeketsi Majoro to have him fired over alleged corruption and police brutality.
What makes the situation worse is that the 11th Amendment to the Constitution Bill 2022, which removes the function of appointing the heads of these agencies from the office of the prime minister to avoid politicisation, was challenged at the constitutional court.
This means Lesotho will usher in a new government after tomorrow 7 with a legacy of security sector problems.
As far back as 2020, at the height of the Covid-19 lockdown, the Lesotho Lawyers for Human Rights (LLHR) have expressed concern at the recent violations of human rights by the Lesotho Defence Force) LDF) and Lesotho Mounted Police Service (LMPS).
In a letter to the then Covid-19 Command Centre, the organisation said there were clear and credible reports and conclusive evidence of unimaginable barbaric abuse meted out to the citizens by the army and police by torturing, maiming, and robbing members of the public.
“LLHR is addressing this letter to the President of the Law Society of Lesotho (the Law Society) mindful of the main objects the Parliament of Lesotho established the Law Society for. It is now settled and trite even by judicial pronouncements that the Law Society is a watchdog of the rule of law in the Kingdom.
“Indeed the Law Society in the past came to the rescue of the citizens when members of the country’s Law Enforcement Agencies had gone rogue, as they are currently – albeit gorier than any other time before.
“We propose that the Law Society should bring an urgent application interdicting and restraining the Commander of LDF and Commissioner of LMPS and the officers subordinate to them from subjecting members of the public to crimes against humanity, torture and/or any degrading inhuman treatment,” LLHR said.
It also wanted the heads of the said enforcement agencies to be ordered to round up all its members who participated in such disgraceful crimes as actual perpetrators or forthwith and present them before the courts of law. It insisted it would have been in the interest of justice that those rogue soldiers and police were to be suspended from discharging their official duties pending the determination of their criminal cases.
LLHR also undertook to assist the Law Society in any manner that may be necessary, including to investigate the human rights violations committed by the army and police and compile a report following consultation with victims and witnesses.
“It is the considered view of LLHR that in the absence of compelling evidence that Commissioner of Police Holomo Molibeli) and LDF boss Lt-General Mojalefa Letsoela have taken decisive steps to bring the implicated officers to book, it will be incumbent upon the Law Society as the watchdog of the rule of law to mount mandamus proceedings against the prime minister to exact accountability from the said public officers in terms of the relevant legislative framework.
“It serves a good purpose to register the sentiment that all members of the legal fraternity and human rights formations within the fraternity, must hang our heads in shame for having allowed such a desperate situation to continue for a long time without anybody doing anything meaningful to try and stop it. It is for the afore going considerations that LLHR enjoins the Law Society to attend to the above matter urgently, and undertakes to join cause with it. Failing which LLHR will have no alternative but to take the lead.”
