By Kefiloe Kajane
Lesotho’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom Rethabile Mokaeane is in hot water as she faces disciplinary action for alleged misconduct while heading the country’s mission in London.
During the sitting of the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) this week, Mokaeane said she had received a letter from the foreign affairs and international relations principal secretary Tanki Mothae to show cause why she could not be brought before a disciplinary hearing.
Detailing her ordeal, Mokaeane told the committee that there had been allegations levelled against her claiming she had paid fees for her children to attend a private school. She said such accusations were far from the truth as her children were not able to attend classes for a year.
But she claimed no knowledge of the root cause of the claims which had been doing the rounds within the mission.
Mokaeane suggested that her offices were clouded in squabbles among the mission diplomats over what she termed office issues.
The head of the mission said she had written to the foreign affairs chief accounting officer requesting a mediatory intervention between her and the staff. That, she observed, had never happened.
Subsequently, she learned that her junior officers were in direct contact with the chief accounting officer at the ministry.
“I find the letter that I received as a form of harassment and intimidation. I was also accused of going on official trips that were not budgeted for. I was also accused of being rude to the juniors.
“I find the allegations in the disciplinary letter as intimidation and harassment from the PS because I have asked for his intervention before but he did not do anything about it,” Mokaeane said.
In response to Mokaeane’s claims, Mothae confirmed that the ministry was conducting an internal disciplinary investigation against Mokaeane.
He could not divulge the nature of the probe, only urging that such an exercise was not meant to victimize the high diplomat. He said it was just a process to follow when such allegations emerge within the ministry.
“I have been given the responsibility to run this ministry and handling matters like this. I cannot go into any details on this matter as it will interfere with the investigations,” he said.
A member of PAC Tṧeliso Kalake said PAC is not trying to interfere with the ministry’s investigations but “it is trying to find out what happened in the mission in London.”
He said if the committee decided to advise the ministry to withdraw the action, he hoped the latter would comply.
However, Mothae urged that such a path should not be trodden by the committee as it was intended to “fix some issues that seem to be arising at the mission in London.”
After a long back and forth, the PAC member Kaya Nyapane suggested that the sitting be adjourned so as to enable the committee to forge for the way forward.
Meanwhile, it also emerged during the PAC sitting that the mission’s Head Chancellor Lineo Palime, obtained permission from Mothae to transfer her child from a London school to South Africa.
When questioned by the committee chairperson Teboho Sekata whether she understood that such a permission was instructing her to break the law, Palime answered in the negative.
She clearly explained that when she arrived in London in 2019 her children attended public schools as the private learning facilities were expensive. But, she added, her child faced bullying challenges, forcing her to seek permission for transfer the child to South Africa.
“The first letter that I wrote requesting that my child be transferred to a school in South Africa, was not approved. I decided not to give up and made another request, which was then approved,” she said.
On the contrary Sekata said the public service law clearly stipulated that the child of an assigned diplomat should attend school where such diplomat resides.
He indicated that the letter they saw as PAC from Mothae addressed to the High Commissioner Mokaeane asked her to approve the child transfer notwithstanding the law stipulated above.
But Palime rejected that she had broken the law although she claimed she was initially not aware she had then breached the legislation.
On her part, Mokaeane claimed no knowledge of the transfer as she was not part of the decision.
Mothae could not deny or admit any knowledge about the letter penned to the High Commissioner regarding the transfer of the child to a South African school.
