MASERU
The widow of the late Lesotho Defence Force (LDF) Commander, Lieutenant General Maaparankoe Mahao told the High Court during her cross-examination that her family completely lost trust in the government of the time because it lied about how he died.
On Tuesday, Mrs ’Mamphanya Mahao testified in the ongoing trial where nine LDF members face charges of murdering Lt Gen Mahao.
She recalled how, soon after the killing,the then Defence Minister Tšeliso Mokhosi went on national radio to claim that an “accident” had taken place and that “an officer had died.”
For the family, she said, this was nothing but a cover-up.
Mrs Mahao told the court that her husband had even approached Mokhosi for help when his security detail was withdrawn, but the minister failed to assist him. This, she said, added to the family’s pain and betrayal.
She added that the government’s actions after the killing made matters worse. The army, she testified, refused to release Mahao’s body, leaving the family deeply suspicious of the official story.
Shattered by lies and denial, the family went public.
“We stood up, we spoke to the media and we told the nation what really happened,” Mrs Mahao said.
They also reached out to the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and other international bodies to demand justice.
As a result, SADC set up a Commission of Inquiry led by Retired Justice Mpaphi Phumaphi. The commission investigated the death and produced a report with strong recommendations.
According to Mrs Mahao, the original report mentioned names of those implicated in the killing and called for accountability. However, when the government later released its version, those names had been deliberately removed.
“I managed to get hold of the original report,” she told the court.
“It had names, unlike the one the government presented. That is when we knew they were hiding the truth.”
Her testimony painted a picture of a family that was not only grieving but also battling a state determined to silence them.
For Mrs Mahao, the lies, the refusal to release the body and the editing of the SADC report proved that the government had betrayed them.
“We had no confidence in them anymore,” she said firmly.
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