Africa-Press – Lesotho. TŠENOLO FM presenter, Abiel Sebolai, was allegedly beaten and injured by a mob of Socialist Revolutionaries (SR) supporters on Saturday. Sebolai said the mob, which he suspected was drunk, attacked him with fists, sticks and stones.
He said the group was enraged after he tried to take pictures of their cars which belonged to the Ministry of Local Government Sebolai told thepost that he had gone to Thaba-Tseka with the Thaba-Moea MP, Puseletso Lejone Paulose, on a work trip when he spotted a group of people clad in SR regalia riding in the government vehicle, hoisting beer bottles.
“We were in Mantšonyane when I saw the Local Government vehicle full of men and women with bottles of beer in their hands,” Sebolai said.
“I saw that the majority were wearing Socialist Revolutionaries regalia.
” He wanted to talk about the abuse of government vehicles on his programme the next day.
“I then took out my phone to capture a few pictures and a video,” he said. He said just as he started taking pictures, the vehicle made a U-turn and approached him.
“The driver came to me and asked me what I was doing with my phone,” he said. He said he told the driver that there was nothing wrong with taking pictures as a journalist.
“The person I was with reprimanded him and he attempted to walk away only to turn back and punch me.
“After the first punch, I retaliated by throwing a punch too. I managed to hit him hard and he fell. ” He said the group then jumped off the car and started assaulting him with stones and sticks.
Sebolai said he tried to flee but was stopped by the “stones that were coming to me like rain until I was hit and fell”. “What nearly took my life was a stone that was thrown while I was falling.
It hit me on the forehead and from then I went blind. ” “They were insulting me so much. ” Sebolai said he was helped by a Good Samaritan who risked his life to drag him into his vehicle.
“From there I was taken to the clinic in Lesobeng before an ambulance took me to Mantšonyane Hospital.
“I went to the Mantšonyane police station where I found the same Local Government vehicle parked,” he said.
“I am told that the Local Government Minister instructed it to be impounded and my assailants arrested.
” He complained that he was injured while doing his work “but the Ministry (of Communications) and MISA are silent about my attack”.
The SR spokesman, Thabo Shao, told thepost that they received a report about the incident and the party does not “condone that behaviour”. “I hear arrests are not yet made, those people should be arrested,” he said.
The MISA director, Lekhetho Ntsukunyane, said the board will soon meet to discuss the matter and call the victim before issuing a statement. “We are going to work it out and then issue a condemnation,” Ntsukunyane said.
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