Africa-Press – Lesotho. Molobeli Soulo, who died two weeks ago, will be buried tomorrow in Ha-Seoli, Maseru. Soulo was a former minister in the Prime Minister’s Office. He will be granted a state-assisted funeral.
Soulo’s eldest daughter, Lerato, told thepost that his father died after a long illness. She said her father complained of a severe stomach ache and they rushed him to a private doctor where he was confirmed dead on arrival.
Lerato said her father had been unwell for quite some time. Soulo, 69, was born in Semonkong, Thaba-Ntšo, in Mohale’s Hoek district but later moved to stay in Ha-Seoli, in the southern outskirts of Maseru.
He worked in the South African gold mines and came back home to work at the Coop Lesotho. “He was a loving father who put his family before anything else,” Lerato said.
“Meat was his favourite food,” she said, adding that Soulo loved nice food generally. Lerato said her father also loved singing political songs.
She said her father was a staunch supporter of the “congress movement”, a reference to parties that followed the Basutoland Congress Party’s pan-Africanist ideology.
“He was a straight talker who could not hide his views,” Lerato said. Soulo became an MP for Lithoteng constituency under the Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD) led by Pakalitha Mosisili in 2002.
He joined Thomas Thabane when he left the LCD to form the All Basotho Convention (ABC) in 2006. He was seen as Thabane’s right-hand man and one of those who were in the forefront in the formation of the ABC together with Lehlohonolo Tšehlana, the late Clement Machakela, and Sello Maphalla.
He was elevated to Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office during the 2012 ABC-led parliament where he fought tirelessly to put an end to the spiralling famo wars that wreaked havoc both in Lesotho and South Africa.
Soulo brought together the rival groups in the famo music industry, Terene that was led by the late Rethabile Mokete aka Mosotho Chakela, and Seakhi of Bereng Majoro popularly called Lekase.
Soulo held public gatherings in the country focusing mainly on the hotspots of famo killings. He will be remembered as a willing tool in the fight against famo gangsterism, supported by Selibe Mochoboroane who was then the Deputy Local Government Minister.
Soulo was the first Lesotho minister to officially visit famo violence hotspots in South Africa to talk to the gangsters. This saw Mosotho Chakela shaking hands with Lekase back home in Mafeteng at an indaba that was hailed as a breakthrough to peace, which unfortunately became temporary as a spate of gang-related murders started again in just two years.
The two gang leaders had made a promise to bury the hatchet. “Why insult people in your lyrics?” Soulo demanded answers from famo singers whose songs are full of vitriol.
“Why could you not praise the rivers and mountains of this country instead of hurling insults at each other?”
In a desperate attempt to save the spilling of blood because of the famo differences, Soulo threatened to ban the famo music genre in the country, which was quite an ambition.
“Basali ba tla qhalla thuoana holim’a ka,” he said, literally saying he would storm to the famo hotspot areas in the wee hours of the morning before women could empty out their chamber bowls.
In Basotho tradition, chamber bowls are emptied at the rubbish heap secretly before or at dawn so that men and boys do not see them, for it is considered a humiliation for any woman to be caught emptying them.
He will be remembered for coining the metaphor, masole a tla le sola, which gives an imagery of soldiers beating people with stinging nettles and thus causing their bodies to swell.
Soulo was so much in love with the army. “He banna le masole, solang!” he would say as he urged the army to beat those who would not toe the peaceful line he was instilling among the famo gangsters.
He was giving strong orders to the army to act on crime. Because of his relentless and frantic efforts, the killings triggered by famo differences declined.
Famo music players were mauling each other mercilessly and heartlessly. They were hell bent to eliminate others at any given time and place. On February 11, 2014, Thabane kicked out Soulo from his ministerial position under controversial circumstances.
Critics said Soulo reportedly fell out of Thabane’s favour over some administrative issues. Soulo then left the ABC to re-join the LCD, now led by Mothetjoa Metsing after Mosisili defected to found the Democratic Congress (DC).
He was quoted by the local media saying he rejoined the LCD so that he could have peace of mind. Soulo is survived by his wife and three children, two girls and a boy.
The LCD leader, Mothetjoa Metsing, said his party had lost a visionary leader. He said he worked with Soulo at the time when he was the leader of the LCD youth league while Metsing was the secretary general of the same league.
“We worked harmoniously together while I was still a young man,” Metsing said.
“He supervised me a lot while in the youth league,” he said.
“The LCD has lost a giant,” he said.
While still at the LCD under the leadership of Mosisili, Metsing said the LCD crafted well-thought out policies that are still being enjoyed even today. He said Soulo contributed to the good policies that are a legacy for the Basotho nation.
The leader of Senkatana Social Democratic Party, Lehlohonolo Tšehlana who was threatened with violence by Soulo and the late famo singer Lebajoa Lephatšoe when he had conflicts with Thabane, said he first interacted with Soulo while they were together in the LCD.
Tšehlana defected from the ABC to found Senkatana. He said he interacted with Soulo after he took a baton from Matooane Mokhosi as the LCD youth league president.
“He was a brave person,” Tšehlana said.
“He was a man of his own words”. He said Soulo wanted to see his views implemented regardless of whether some people were happy or not.
But he did not want to say anything about him while he was the ABC MP on the principle of De mortuis nil nisi bonum (Of the dead say nothing but good).
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