Maseru - Lesotho’s new Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili has decided to revoke the diplomatic passports of Gupta family members because he “does not need the Guptas as advisors”.
The passports were issued last year to Atul Kumar Gupta, his nephew Essa Omar Aziz and a third unidentified member of the family by former prime minister Thomas Thabane after he had appointed them as his economic advisors with a mandate to help him market Lesotho abroad and recruit investors for the hopelessly impoverished kingdom wholly surrounded by South Africa.
Thabane told the Independent Foreign Service then that he had decided to give the diplomatic passports to the Guptas after he was introduced to them by President Jacob Zuma and other senior ANC leaders.
Thabane was ousted from power at the February 28 snap elections called after an attempt to kill him in a coup last year. Thabane survived the attempted putsch in August last year and fled to South Africa only to return under heavy South African Police Service (SAPS) guard.
Mosisili, a former prime minister who returned to power after the February polls, has been reversing most major decisions made by his predecessor, of which one is to cancel the Guptas’ passports.
Lesotho Home Affairs Minister Lekhetho Rakuoane has since announced in Parliament that Mosisili does not need the Guptas as his advisors.
An official in Mosisili’s office, who preferred anonymity, said on Tuesday: “Issuing them the passports was done corruptly and it’s totally unacceptable. We have never understood why he (Thabane) decided to issue the passports.
“Diplomatic passports are issued to our diplomats, foreign ministry officials and other esteemed citizens whose status require them to have such to facilitate their travel. They are not given to strangers.
“If it should be so easy to get diplomatic passports, why did they not get them from South Africa, which we understand is their country of citizenship? Why bring them here?
“It (revoking the passports) was one thing we decided we would do upon entering the government. We have now done that,” added the official.
Claims that the Guptas had tried to reach out to Mosisili and other members of the new government in a bid to keep their passports could not be independently verified.
Speaking in Parliament, Rakuoane said he had personally looked into the circumstances under which the passports were granted and felt withdrawing the passports was the right thing to do.
Rakuoane said Mosisili had also emphasised that he did not need the Guptas.
“The Prime Minister has made it very clear that he does not want the Guptas as his special advisors, which is why we are working to ensure those passports return home to Lesotho,” said Rakuoane.
The decision to target the Guptas comes at a time when Lesotho is in crisis after the murder of Thabane’s former army commander Maaparankoe Mahao by soldiers loyal to the new prime minister.
Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa was due to arrive in Lesotho on Tuesday to try and help resolve the turmoil.
Independent Foreign Service