By Carmel Rickard

An era in the social, economic, legal - even political - life of Lesotho has come to an end with a judgment sending two top officials to jail for corruption.

Now that Reatile Mochebelele and Letlafuoa Molapo - the highest civil servants yet to spend time behind bars for bribery - have been safely tucked away in prison, I expected to feel a sense of satisfaction.

After years of corruption trials and appeals related to the Katse Dam project, the baddies have been fined massive amounts (in the case of the international companies doing the bribing) or have gone to jail (in the case of several locals convicted of taking the bribes).

As you may remember, Mochebelele and Molapo were first fined barely the sums they received as bribes.

However, after an appeal decision this week, they have to go to jail as well as forfeit much of the money they paid as fines.

But instead of experiencing this series of convictions and sentences as a resounding victory, I've come to understand that even such a brave fight, with such stunning successes, can't be more than unfinished business.

Reluctantly I have to concede that no victory is final in the fight against corruption, and that bribery is like worms in a dog's gut. Though all but invisible, these worms can seriously - sometimes fatally - compromise your animal's health.

And even as you apply the drug to cleanse its system of parasites, you know it won't be long before you detect the symptoms once more and have to dose the animal all over again.

Several things made this particular judgment and sentence noteworthy.

First, Mochebelele and Molapo were extremely senior officials in the commission, whose task was to oversee the entire development project.

The fact that they were exposed as crooks put me in mind of Lucifer and the other fallen angels.

In its judgment, the court stressed that the two had betrayed their position.

The commission on which they served as leading members had a "protective role" in the system, designed to oversee the entire project. The two had "occupied positions of responsibility and great trust" within the commission.

They were very senior officials, paid substantial salaries. Effectively, their commission was "to be the watchdog of the water project".

You don't fall further than these two.

Second, they had led a double life, deceiving everyone who depended on them to ensure the project was "clean".

Of course, this is not unusual, for corruption depends on deceit.

But in this case, the two had even given evidence against a less senior colleague, who was found to have taken bribes.

They testified about the dire consequences of his behaviour to the project. That kind of hypocrisy adds a special bitterness to their actions.

Third - and this by no means lessens the responsibility that Mochebelele and Molapo must bear for their crimes - it is a strange and troubling fact that one of the bribers got off with no sanction whatsoever.

So far, German, Canadian, Italian and French companies have between them paid R52 million in fines for bribing local people in Lesotho.

But one big fish has escaped prosecution. The Maseru courts found that the German company Lahmeyer and its British partner, Mott MacDonald, jointly paid some of the bribes.

Lahmeyer was ultimately sentenced to pay R12m.

Later, company officials helped the prosecution by providing evidence against Mochebelele and Molapo.

However, as soon as it became clear that charges were in the offing, MacDonald left the country and the prosecution had no representative on whom to serve charges.

The leader of the Maseru prosecution team, Guido Penzhorn SC, later visited England.

There he met senior prosecutors of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and offered them the necessary help and evidence to bring a case against MacDonald.

But the SFO declined to take him on, muttering something about allegations relating to events that took place "long ago".