Africa-Press – Lesotho. THE Assistant Master of the High Court in Qacha’s Nek, Liteboho Rafutho, is at the centre of a raging storm with residents accusing him of going AWOL.
Magistrates and other judicial officers confirmed to thepost this week that Rafutho hops in and out of his office and has not been coming to work consistently in the last six months.
The Master is responsible for the administration of deceased and insolvent estates, protection of property of minors and administration of the guardian fund.
Without his intervention, critical cases that involve deceased estates cannot be resolved. In a daring act, Rafutho has displayed on his office door his mobile phone number with an instruction to call him when seeking services.
Residents said once you call him, he instructs you to come and see him in his office. But even after setting the appointment, residents said Rafutho still fails to keep his word.
When thepost reporter called him, he never pitched up. “Come back tomorrow, I am on my way to Qacha,” Rafutho said. But he was still not there the following day.
When the reporter told him the real intention of her call, Rafutho said he was on two weeks’ leave but insisted that he had been hands on before he went on leave.
Probed further, Rafutho said: “I am not sure whether I am allowed to talk to the media, let me call my boss first. ” His boss, Master of the High Court ’Matahleho Matiea, told this paper that she was aware of the situation in Qacha’s Nek and was working to solve the problem.
“Tell your informants to write their complaints including their contacts and leave them with either the DA or the clerk,” Matiea said.
“I will collect them in two weeks’ time in order to act,” she said. Service seekers told thepost that they were on the verge of losing hope.
Sello Phakoe of Hloahloeng, who had travelled for almost three hours to Qacha’s Nek, said he was desperate to get a letter from the Master’s office so that he could access monies his late mother left him.
Phakoe, whose home is about 60 kilometres away said her mother’s bank had asked him to bring a letter from the Master. “I had to go back home empty-handed,” Phakoe said.
“I will have to wait until I am called as I was asked to leave my contacts there,” he said.
“But the wait isn’t helping me at all. I need help to get the letter. ” Tumo Khoeli of Motse-Mocha in Qacha’s Nek town said he went there for the first time on a Monday and the office was closed.
But since the assistant Master had displayed his contacts at the office door he called him and Rafutho instructed him to come back the following Tuesday.
“I came back but he was still not there,” Khoeli said.
“I asked around in the nearby offices about his whereabouts, it was then that I learnt that he is never there,” he said.
“I am not the only one who has been lied to.
” Khoeli said he called Rafutho again and he gave him the very same answer.
“It was then that I gave up,” he said.
“It’s heart-breaking to seek services from a person who lacks compassion for people.
” The nearest Master’s office is in Quthing, some 111 kilometres away.
Khoeli said he wanted the Master to help his relative, who has now attained the age of maturity, to get a letter to allow him to access funds left behind by his late parents.
The relative, Khoeli said, was in the country and now he has since returned to South Africa without having met the Master. The Qacha’s Nek Magistrate’s Court Senior Clerk, Mantsi Mokhachane, said a lot of people have returned to their homes without getting any assistance from the office.
He said some people go to his office for help and he is unable to assist them. “It is disruptive having to deal with another office’s issues,” Mokhachane said.
“I don’t even remember the last time I saw him, it’s been over six months, close to a year now,” he said. He said he attended a meeting at the High Court in Maseru recently and told Matiea about the problems in Qacha’s Nek.
Resident Magistrate ’Mampho Mokoena said since her arrival in January 2022, she only saw Rafutho in December and two times thereafter. Since then, she said the office has been unoccupied.
“I really did not do anything about it because I wasn’t aware it is a problem,” Magistrate Mokoena said.
“I assumed that’s how his office operates, coming to work once in a while or whenever there is a need,” she said.
Magistrate Tšeliso Bale said he arrived in the district in March this year and he has received a lot of complaints from people in need of services offered in that office.
“I have seen people spending the whole day outside his office. I even confronted him and called his boss twice about the matter,” Magistrate Bale said.
The District Administrator Mantsi Tšeane said he has reported Rafutho over five times. “Unfortunately nothing has been done to address this issue despite my cry for help,” Tšeane said.
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