Africa-Press – Lesotho. The office of the Ombudsman is a critical stakeholder in the administration of justice within the democratic framework such as Lesotho. This office is charged with the mandate to, amongst
others, investigate aggrieved people’s complaints, conduct within the public administration where it is alleged to be impropriety as well as investigate the
alleged cases against human rights abuse and compile a report for a remedial action to be taken against such malpractices. In Lesotho, this office was
established by the Section 134 of the 1993 Constitution of Lesotho and enacted through the Ombudsman Act No. 9 of 1996. Our reporter Thoboloko Ntšonyane had
an interview with the Ombudsman, Advocate Tšeliso Mokoko. Advocate Mokoko was admitted into the High Court of Lesotho as a Lawyer in September 1998. Following his admission, he served at the Ministry of Justice
and was placed in Legal Aid department from 1999 up to 2003 when he resigned from public service to get into private legal practice under T. J Mokoko Chambers
where he worked from 2003 to November 2014, leaving the practice with another counsel to take the United Nations post with his wife in New York, in the
United States and worked until December 2016. Upon returning home, he was appointed Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Local Government and Chieftainship for a
period of three years and in May 2018 he was posted at the Ministry of Defence and National Security where he worked for nine months until May 2019 and in June the same year he was appointed to the Ombudsman’s office. Below is an excerpt for the interview.
Since assuming this office on June 2019, how has the journey been?
It has been a rather tough journey but we have managed to sail on up to now. The office has its own challenges. Despite that I have been doing my best to give service to the people who come for services at the office.
What have been some of the highlights in these two years in office?
I will make reference to a few cases that the office has handled. The first case that I handled involved private companies that were engaged by Lesotho Millennium Development Agency (LMDA) for
various services, and have approached the office about the treatment that they have been getting at that agency. Upon the receipt of the complaint the
Ombudsman then initiated an inquiry to investigate that office and while we were in the middle of those investigations the office approached the High Court
of Lesotho to suspend that enquiry and that enquiry was suspended through an order of the court and up to date. That enquiry has not been finalised hence is
still pending in the court. It means all the complaints have not been resolved, the Ombudsman has not had an opportunity to finalise that enquiry because of
the pending matter in the High Court. I regard that matter as an important case which would ultimately after investigations come up with the necessary
recommendations whether that office has been run properly or not. It does not say that people who have been complaining about their different grievances have
gone unnoticed, the matters are still there in their phases to be dealt with. It means now the office cannot assist them or do whatever needs to be done until that matter has been finalised
What are you looking forward to in the next two years?
What we are looking for is ultimately tomake sure that Basotho get the services that were intended for this office and offer them efficiently and effectively.
Which challenges have you faced in executing the mandate of your office
? Some of the challenges are lack of resources,
you find that the office is under resourced therefore there are certain things we cannot do due to lack of resources. The other challenge is that the office
is still centralised here in Maseru. That being the case, it means that people in other districts and in rural areas are not aware of the office and the services that the office is offering therefore they are not in a position to seek assistance from this office.
Which types of cases do you get to adjudicate?
We deal with a variety of cases because the mandate of the office is to investigate matters hanging on corruption, maladministration, injustice and degradation of environment.
At least how many cases do you dispose of in a month?
That depends on a number of factors really because you find that the statistics differ from month to month. Our work depends on entirely the cooperation that we get from other corresponding
agencies. If we are lucky enough to receive the correspondence on time you find that the cases get disposed of quickly, but if there are some delays from the
Ministries, the correspondences from the office of the Ombudsman would have an impact on the finality of cases which might take longer to be finalised.
How much awareness is there to the public about this office and can you
say that the members of the public appreciate its mandate? We use various platforms to inform people about the office of the Ombudsman- we make adverts on radio stations,
tell people where it is located and what services it offers. Apart from that the office conducts outreach programmes in the districts, we hold lipitso (public gatherings) and address
people about the office and what it offers but that is still a challenge as we cannot reach everybody, you will find that we have identified about two
villages in the district that we go to and it means the other villages will not have the benefit that these other villages have. In a nutshell we can say it is a programme that we have which does not reach everybody but at least is better than nothing.
Does the office have enough resources to realise its mandate?
The issue of the resources is still a great challenge but with the little resources that we have, we try to utilise them to our best ability to ensure that we offer something to people who seek our services. I can say that the little that we have, we utilise it for the benefit of the people.
In a democratic dispensation such as Lesotho, how important is the role
played by your office and how has it contributed towards the promotion of human rights? The office of Ombudsman is a creature of statute and it was established after the enactment of the Constitution of
Lesotho in 1993. It is one of the pillars of our democracy. Therefore, this institution by itself is to ensure that democracy and constitutionality are
maintained in Lesotho. If people are given an opportunity to come to the office to state their grievances and are being addressed, ultimately the office will
come up with recommendations forcing that pillar of democracy that the peoples’ voices are heard. That also is their way of exercising their democratic rights
in the democratic dispensation. This office is there to ensure that the peoples’ inherent human rights are protected in all respects. Wherever there are
allegations of inhuman treatment the office will ensure that such cases are investigated and if need be the Ombudsman will come up with the measures on how such issues can be addressed.
What happens in an event where the Ombudsman gives orders or makes
recommendations about an action/s be taken and such are not adhered to? In a democratic dispensation the expectation is that once the Ombudsman makes recommendations, all the affected parties
or the body or the agency who savour a remedial action that has been made should implement the recommendations of the Ombudsman. But in an event that a party is not happy with
the recommendations of the Ombudsman such party is not expected to ignore those and may approach the courts of law to seek the remedial action and challenge
that which one it is not happy with. If it comes to the attention of the Ombudsman that the recommendations had not been complied with in terms of the
times stipulated because once the recommendations are made there are timelines in which those recommendations should be adhered to within those stipulated
time and if that time has lapsed without any implementation of those recommendations, the Ombudsman will report that to parliament so that the parliament can take the necessary steps against the concerned agency.
The main mandate of this office is to receive complaints and then investigate them and make recommendations after those investigations about the remedial actions that can
be taken by the affected agency. The office of the Ombudsman is there to ensure that democracy prevails, that there is no abuse of power in agencies, where
there is suspicion that people are mistreated by members of security agencies or if there is abuse of human rights by Police, people can approach the office to state their complaints and the office will investigate those reports and make recommendations on remedial actions to be taken.
Can the Ombudsman voluntarily initiate the investigations on any matter
as long as it is within the confines of the powers of his office? If it comes to the attention of Ombudsman that there is for instance inhuman treatment of the people but nobody has reported that, the Ombudsman Act permits him to initiate investigations.
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