Johannesburg - The situation in Lesotho has got out of hand.
Not only was Lloyd Mutungamiri, editor of the Lesotho Times and Sunday Express newspapers, shot and critically injured in an assassination attempt in the capital Maseru at the weekend, but Basildon Peta, the publisher and chief executive of the newspaper group, has been charged with crimen injuria.
The government of Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili accuses the newspapers of being too critical of it, and a spokesman for one of the parties in the coalition government recently went on air calling for Peta to be killed, accusing him of being a spy.
Mutungamiri was shot around midnight on Saturday as he parked his car after returning from work.
His wife, Tsitsi Mutungamiri, said she heard several gunshots and then screamed for help before going out of the home after the shots had ended. She found her husband slumped in the car, bleeding profusely after a bullet shattered his jaw.
Mutungamiri was initially picked up for interrogation by detectives last month, on June 23, after the Lesotho Times published two reports deemed to have defamed the powerful commander of the Lesotho Defence Force, (LDF) Tlali Kennedy Kamoli.
One report suggested that the Lesotho government was discussing a proposal for a hefty R40 million payout for Kamoli to exit the LDF in line with a recommendation by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) inquiry into Lesotho’s instability that Kamoli be relieved from his post.
Another story was a satirical column which argued that Lesotho was far better off without Lieutenant-General Kamoli.
Peta was subsequently summoned to the police and charged with criminal defamation and crimen injuria over the contents of a satirical column called Scrutator.
He was released on R30 800 bail. He is due back in court on Tuesday.
Africa Media Holdings (AMH), the publishers of the Lesotho Times, said it was clear the hit on Mutungamiri was a targeted assassination attempt.
Nothing was stolen from the editor, so robbery could not have been the main motive. The company expressed serious concern at the Lesotho government’s open hostility towards the Lesotho Times.
AU Commission chairwoman Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma recently condemned the breakdown in the rule of law in Lesotho after an attack on the house of arch government critic and National University of Lesotho pro-vice chancellor, Professor Mafa Sejanamane.
The country has in recent times experienced a spate of killings. In one incident four people were shot dead at Qeme near Maseru.
The main opposition All Basotho Convention (ABC) said the four were its supporters who had attended its rally in the area.
The daughter of an ABC MP was shot dead on June 22 as she arrived home driving her father’s vehicle.
The MP, Lehlohonolo Moramotse, claimed he was the main target of the attack and the assassins had thought he was the one driving the car.
Lesotho has been on a downward spiral since the assassination of former LDF commander Maaparankoe Mahao, on June 25 last year, and the reinstatement of Tlali Kamoli by Prime Minister Mosisili after the latter was returned to power in the February 28 snap elections last year.
The snap elections were called after Kamoli launched a coup attempt on then-prime minister Thomas Thabane on August 30, 2014.
Thabane, who had fired Kamoli and replaced him with Mahao, fled the country, only to return under heavy South African police guard.
He and all the other opposition leaders are now living in exile in South Africa after various attempts to kill them by suspected LDF members.
They have vowed not to return as long as Kamoli remains head of the LDF. No arrests have been made in any of the shootings or attacks on suspected government opponents.
An SADC special summit on June 28 gave Lesotho a month to outline time frames for implementing the regional body’s commission of inquiry recommendations.
Independent Foreign Service