Africa-Press – Lesotho. THREE National Security Service (NSS) officers could be in trouble for viciously attacking a Chinese man after a row over the repair of a property owned by the spy agency.
The Chinese national is a senior manager at Kopano ke Matla (KKM), the joint venture company that had rented the NSS’s training camp site in Mphorosane to accommodate staff building the water tunnel that joins Katse Dam and Polihali Dam.
The workers moved into the camp several months ago after the KKM reached a deal with the NSS. The NSS agreed to give KKM some rooms in exchange for repairing the camp’s toilets, sewerage system and other buildings.
The camp was built more than 20 years ago to house Lesotho Highlands Development Authority (LHDA) staff working on the Katse Dam construction project.
The NSS inherited the camp after the Katse project ended and has used it as a training camp since then but has struggled to maintain it. Buildings are dilapidated, toilets are broken and the sewer system is a mess.
Trouble allegedly started three weeks ago when the NSS agents based at the camp demanded that KKM deliver on its promise to do the repairs. The agents allegedly gave the senior KKM officials two weeks to start repairing the sewerage system and the toilets.
When the two weeks lapsed without any repairs the NSS agents confronted the company officials at the site again. Matters quickly came to a head last week when the agents locked the camp’s gate, early one morning, and instructed that none of the KKM staff leave the camp.
After a few hours a Chinese man who is KKM’s team leader at the site opened the gate and ordered the staff to immediately report for duty. He is said to have told the workers that the senior management teams of the NSS and KKM were resolving the issue in Maseru.
The chaos started at around 5pm when the workers returned to the camp. Sources who were at the camp said NSS agents locked the gate, rounded up the workers and demanded to know who had opened the gate for them to leave in the morning.
When the Chinese man came forward the agents asked him who he thought he was by disrespecting the NSS. Sources say they noticed that at least one of them was holding a gun.
A source said one of the officers said they were going to teach the Chinese man to respect the NSS. They then started beating the man with fists and sticks.
“It was a brutal attack. It was as if they (agents) were enjoying themselves,” said a KKM employee who witnessed the attack.
“They were taunting him, ordering him to drink some water and eat something. They were humiliating him. ” Meanwhile, the other workers were ordered to stand by and watch.
As the beating continued some female workers started crying and pleaded with the agents to stop or they would kill the man. The witness said the agents told the women to shut up or they would beat them too.
“They only stopped when it appeared like the man had been badly injured.
He could have broken a few bones,” the witness said. The man is said to have spent several days in hospital. KKM immediately vacated the camp and moved its staff to Motebong.
The matter was reported to the Motebong Police Station but no arrests have been made yet. Police sources at the station told thepost that three agents were mentioned as suspects.
They said there has been hushed speculation that senior NSS officials are trying to negotiate for the suspects to avoid arrest. Last night Limpho Gugushe, the NSS’s public relations manager, said she was still trying to confirm with her superiors if the incident happened.
She had promised to do that when the thepost initially called her on Tuesday afternoon. Police spokesperson Senior Superintendent, Kabelo Halahala, could not be reached for a comment.
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