Africa-Press – Lesotho. NATIONAL Security Service (NSS) boss, Pheello Ralenkoane, could regret his decision to take on Machesetsa Mofomobe in a legal battle. Ralenkoane filed an affidavit to oppose Mofomobe’s application to block the NSS’ attempts to confiscate his phones.
The warrant, issued on May 17, was signed by the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office, Limpho Tau, on Prime Minister Sam Matekane’s behalf. Although cited as the first respondent, Matekane did not file an answering affidavit.
Instead, it is Ralenkoane, cited as the second respondent, who came out guns blazing in his affidavit. He said the NSS wanted Mofomobe’s phones because he is a suspect in the murder of journalist Ralikonelo Joki.
Ralenkoane revealed that the phones would reveal how Mofomobe compromised state security by receiving classified information from intelligence officer, Ithabeleng Pitso, whom he claimed was Mofomobe’s girlfriend.
The NSS boss also attached pictures of the WhatsApp messages between Mofomobe and Pitso to prove they were sharing classified information and that they had an affair.
Some of those pictures border on the pornographic. But Mofomobe appears unfazed by those explosive revelations. In his replying affidavit filed this week, he not only denies the allegations but also makes his own equally startling allegations against the NSS boss.
But first, he says Ralenkoane’s affidavit “constitutes a misrepresentation” that the prime minister authorised the warrant. He accused Ralenkoane of misleading the prime minister when he sought his permission to approve the approval of the search warrant.
Even Minister Tau, he claims, had admitted in a newspaper interview that he signed the warrant on the prime minister’s behalf without reading it. After chastising Ralenkoane for attaching threads of the alleged communication between him and Pitso, Mofomobe starts savaging him.
He claims that he has personally shared a lot of information with Ralenkoane whom he says he deployed as the NSS boss. “I have meticulously studied his affidavit and I have observed that he says nothing about it but complains when I share the same information with his junior staff,” Mofomobe says.
He says it is Ralenkoane who introduced him to Pitso and other NSS officers. Mofomobe then throws a bombshell, alleging that Ralenkoane introduced him to intelligence officers ’Matau Hlalele and Tlaleng Thaele “whom he told me (Mofomobe) he exercised his prerogative to employ because they are his girlfriends from the BNP”.
He says Ralenkoane actively participated in the exchange of information between him and the three intelligence officers. “As a spy, he would in turn confirm the accuracy of the summary of the information I provided to them with me”.
That exchange, the BNP leader says, was never “inimical” to the operation of the NSS and Ralenkoane “effectively authorised it for politically intrusive oversight in the same way as he authorised Ms Pitso”.
Mofomobe alleges that Ralenkoane started victimizing Pitso after he fell out with him over the BNP leadership. The fallout, he adds, is the reason Ralenkoane abused his position to mislead Prime Minister Matekane to issue an “unconstitutional” warrant to try to confiscate his phones.
“He is now sponsoring the faction that wants to remove me from the leadership of the BNP.
” Mofomobe then paints Ralenkoane as an incompetent spy who benefited from his benevolence. Without him, he says, Ralenkoane would have remained a struggling farmer with no prospects of escaping poverty.
“I told him that he has no capacity to run the NSS and I warned him that without me entrenching his employment security he is going to do farming where I rescued him from.
“I was alone in cabinet when asking Prime Minister (Moeketsi) Majoro to appoint him, meantime, he was already ploughing a two-hectare field in Kolo when I called him to the house of my friend and assured him he is employed.
” He says when he came to the house Ralenkoane “drank all the Oros in the fridge because he was hungry”.
Mofomobe says instead of dealing with substantial issues raised in the application Ralenkoane resorted to making unfounded allegations about him that he is involved in the murder of Joki and was sharing intelligence with Pitso.
For More News And Analysis About Lesotho Follow Africa-Press
