Last week Lesotho social media went ablaze with news that “Mohale’s Hoek prison inmates were spotted working in the fields of the Minister of Law and Justice, Richard Ramoeletsi”.
According to social media news pages and legally, this was against the law.
The Lesotho Tribune had made efforts to contact the minister to hear his comments on the allegations made against him but to no avail.
However, this week we got the opportunity to talk to the minister who shed light on the issue that saw some Basotho applaud the act while some said it was pure political exploitation, calling it abuse of power without investigating the facts at hand.
In our interview with Richard Ramoeletsi, he addressed the allegations that Mohale’s Hoek prison inmates were working in his personal fields in Mekaling. While confirming that inmates were indeed working in fields in his constituency, Ramoeletsiclarified that the fields are part of a Ministry of Law and Justice and Lesotho Correctional Services (LCS) Food Sufficiency Project, not his private property.
Some three years ago, the Ministry of Law and Justice, in collaboration with the Lesotho Correctional Services (LCS), implemented a Food Sufficiency Project, which became active in the F/Y 2025/26.
The project was awarded a staggering M7.2 million in the same year, which the two parties spent towards securing, among others, farming equipment, including a tractor and some farming inputs and other equipment which would contribute towards other projects within the initiative. The project now has a total of three tractors.
The aim of the whole initiative was to boost agricultural self-sufficiency and inmate rehabilitation and enhance food production while also teaching vocational skills to inmates to reduce reliance on external food, improve nutrition and support reintegration into society.
The project would transform Correctional Centres countrywide into hubs for sustainable food production and skills development, improving inmate welfare and institutional food security.
The plan was to plough fields in the constituencies of Peka, Ha-Makhoathi and Maphutṣ̌ing; areas that were independently selected by the LCS with the plan to involve the inmates in the day-to-day activities of the project.
This project involved agreements with field owners in these constituencies, including Mekaling, for an 80/20 yield share deal with the ministry and LCS.
Ramoeletsi went on to reveal that in the past, the project had ploughed 840 acres of land in Maphutṣ̌ing, where the yield was very bad due to drought.
At the Makhoathi constituency, 227 acres of beans and maize were sown and the results were also very bad due to unpleasant weather conditions.
In Peka, they ploughed 122 acres of maize and 150 in Maphutṣ̌ingand the ministry and the LCS are hopeful the turnover this time will be positive.
Positive results of the initiative include dressing 700 inmates in new uniforms, courtesy of the inmates who had taken fashion design training skills. The dream is to be able to produce uniforms for all inmates countrywide, about 3000 of them and also produce uniforms for the LCS members.
Ramoeletsi Sets the Record Straight
