Africa-Press – Lesotho. TEN people, two of whom are officials in the pensions’ office, appeared in the Maseru Magistrates’ Court this week for allegedly defrauding the government of M1.7 million.
The Directorate on Corruption and Economic Offences (DCEO) told Magistrate Thamae Thamae on Monday that Limakatso ’Malikhetla, 50, and Mongali Mohapi, 40, were pensions officials who had defrauded the government.
The two were the only officials who had been mandated in 2019 with paying old age pensioners or to enter the names of individuals who qualified for the pension.
The court heard that the duo had unique passwords assigned to each of them. Magistrate Thamae heard that the two entered many non-qualifying people into the pension payment system so that they could be paid the pensions.
The beneficiaries of the said fraud include Liabiloe Mathe, Mookho Tau, Alina Majara, ’Malibuseng Marikimane, Malefetsane Jankuru, ’Matebello Morojele, ’Mateboho Morojele and Boithatelo Morojele all of whom had not attained the pensionable age.
In Lesotho, one qualifies for an old age pension when they reach 70 years. The court is yet to hear for how long these individuals have been receiving the old age pensions.
There are other beneficiaries of the said fraud who were not included in the charge sheet on Monday but their charges were drawn in another case. Of those who appeared on Monday, Mohapi, Tau and Marikimane were declared to have turned into state witnesses.
The fourth accomplice witness, Jankuru, was said to have died. The case has been referred to the Constitutional Court after the defence objected to the picking of accomplice witnesses after jointly discussing their defences.
The case came to court on Monday after several postponements in which ’Malikhetla was the main accused until she asked for a consolidation of all her fraud cases on grounds that she would run out of funds to pay her legal fees.
The charges focused on her after the crown picked Mohapi, her co-accused with whom they worked for the pensions department, as the accomplice witness.
This left ’Malikhetla and the beneficiaries of the said fraud alone to face the music. On Monday, the crown announced that Marikimane would be turned into a state witness to replace Jankuru who has died. The case will continue in September.
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