{"id":28433,"date":"2023-05-08T15:28:01","date_gmt":"2023-05-08T15:28:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/ps-fight-termination-of-contracts"},"modified":"2023-05-08T16:47:55","modified_gmt":"2023-05-08T16:47:55","slug":"ps-fight-termination-of-contracts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/ps-fight-termination-of-contracts","title":{"rendered":"PS\u2019 fight termination of contracts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. <\/strong><\/span>TEN principal secretaries who were sent on forced leave pending termination of their contracts say the move by the Sam Matekane-led government is illegal and irregular as it undermines the rule of law.<\/p>\n

Last Friday, the government wrote dismissal letters to the PSs despite that there is an application pending in the High Court challenging their dismissal.<\/p>\n

The PSs, in a letter addressed to the government\u2019s appointed lawyers Webber Newdigate on Tuesday, said their \u201creplacement is an unlawful and illegal set-up which is clearly intended to siphon the resources of the state under false pretences\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is unlawful to the extent of undermining the rule of law, we cannot tolerate this cloak-and-dagger approach meant to defeat the ends of justice,\u201d their lawyer Advocate Lephuthing said in the letter.<\/p>\n

He pleaded with the government to withdraw its restriction of access to the offices occupied by his clients in terms of the constitution within 24 hours pursuant to the principles of a responsible government.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur clients remain chief accounting officers and no one must assume their constitutional functions until their contracts expire,\u201d Advocate Lephuthing said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we do not get a response within 24 hours we will proceed to interdict the steps taken to place our clients on forced leave of absence,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will apply for costs on an attorney and own client scale.
\nAdvocate Lephuthing urged Webber Newdigate to join hands with him to assist the PSs \u201cto avoid implacable hostility that is brewing because of irresponsible decisions of the government which will result in another deadlock\u201d.<\/p>\n

Advocate Lephuthing said he is aware that the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is sponsoring an initiative to recruit new PSs before the national reforms are completed.<\/p>\n

The UNDP, he said, is also sponsoring the national reforms agenda intended to ensure that the government hires PSs that are apolitical. He said this \u201cappears likely to compromise the integrity of the UNDP and prolonging the crisis around the ability of the Prime Minister to appoint the PSs\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou must assist your clients to avoid the risk of such occurring in the Kingdom of Lesotho,\u201d he told Webber Newdigate.<\/p>\n

Advocate Lephuthing reminded Webber Newdigate that the suggestion to place the PSs on forced leave until their High Court case is finalised was abandoned on March 29, preferring to await the judgement.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur clients continued to be in office until Friday when the government usurped the function of the court and placed them on forced leave,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said this was a coordinated breach of the constitutional principle of the separation of powers. \u201cThis is unlawful to the extent of undermining the rule of law,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot tolerate this cloak and dagger approach meant to defeat the ends of justice.
\nLabour Minister Richards Ramoeletsi told a local radio station last month that the government had decided to terminate the employment contracts of 25 principal secretaries despite their resistance.<\/p>\n

He said the government would soon publish vacancies in the offices of all PSs. The minister said the current government had reduced ministers from 27 to 14.<\/p>\n

He said the second step will be to reduce the number of PS\u2019s from 27 to 14. \u201cThe government laid out different ways to succeed in reducing the number,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Ramoeletsi said the methods included contesting for the job, changing jobs and maintaining the same salary, and taking the worker for retirement \u201cor the principal secretaries should be re-interviewed for the jobs\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ten PS\u2019s who are fighting their dismissal in court are Thabo Motoko, Tlhopheho Sefali, Kamoho Matlama, Dira Khama, Bereng Makotoko, Rets\u030celisitsoe Mohale, Lira Moeti, \u2019Mamonyane Bohloko and \u2019Masekhobe Moholobela. The Prime Minister and the Attorney General are the respondents.<\/p>\n

These PS\u2019s argue that the government is terminating their contracts prematurely and that \u201cthe subsequent decision by the Prime Minister to pay them cash in lieu of notice equivalent to three months is a serious matter that must be addressed urgently.<\/p>\n

They argue that the government is moving away from the contracts signed with the previous administration \u201cin a manner that constitutes an anticipatory breach, giving rise on the part of the applicants to an immediate entitlement to exercise their remedies in law\u201d.<\/p>\n

They said they are unhappy that they have been directed to proceed to take their remaining leave days on speculation that they have been booted out of their jobs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe applicants maintain that the practical consequences of forced leave days may turn out to be invalid,\u201d the court papers read.<\/p>\n

Democratic Congress (DC) leader Mathibeli Mokhothu said the government is wrong in seeking to boot out the PSs. \u201cThey are going to pay two people for one position, that is frivolous,\u201d Mokhothu said.<\/p>\n

He said the reforms have stipulated that the way principal secretaries are hired is not right. \u201cThey should have passed those laws instead of rushing to stop floor crossing,\u201d Mokhothu said.<\/p>\n

He said hiring new people to act as PSs is going to make the government lose a lot of money as those officials will need fuel allowances, phone allowances and others to do their job.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Lesotho<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. TEN principal secretaries who were sent on forced leave pending termination of their contracts say the move by the Sam Matekane-led government is illegal and irregular as it undermines the rule of law. Last Friday, the government wrote dismissal letters to the PSs despite that there is an application pending in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":28432,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7,12],"tags":[233,246,580,245],"class_list":["post-28433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-head-lines","category-policy","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-lesotho","tag-law","tag-lesotho"],"yoast_head":"\nPS\u2019 fight termination of contracts - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"TEN principal secretaries who were sent on forced leave pending termination of their contracts say the move by the Sam M ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/ps-fight-termination-of-contracts\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"PS\u2019 fight termination of contracts\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"TEN principal secretaries who were sent on forced leave pending termination of their contracts say the move by the Sam M ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/ps-fight-termination-of-contracts\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lesotho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-05-08T15:28:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-05-08T16:47:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2023\/05\/postQueueImg_1683543608.81.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"590\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"354\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/ps-fight-termination-of-contracts#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/ps-fight-termination-of-contracts\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"PS\u2019 fight termination of contracts\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-05-08T15:28:01+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-05-08T16:47:55+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/ps-fight-termination-of-contracts\"},\"wordCount\":861,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/ps-fight-termination-of-contracts#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2023\/05\/postQueueImg_1683543608.81.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Lesotho\",\"Law\",\"Lesotho\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"head lines\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/ps-fight-termination-of-contracts#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/ps-fight-termination-of-contracts\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/ps-fight-termination-of-contracts\",\"name\":\"PS\u2019 fight termination of contracts - Lesotho\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/ps-fight-termination-of-contracts#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/ps-fight-termination-of-contracts#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2023\/05\/postQueueImg_1683543608.81.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-05-08T15:28:01+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-05-08T16:47:55+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"TEN principal secretaries who were sent on forced leave pending termination of their contracts say the move by the Sam M ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/ps-fight-termination-of-contracts#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/ps-fight-termination-of-contracts\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/ps-fight-termination-of-contracts#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2023\/05\/postQueueImg_1683543608.81.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2023\/05\/postQueueImg_1683543608.81.jpg\",\"width\":590,\"height\":354,\"caption\":\"PS\u2019 fight termination of contracts\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/ps-fight-termination-of-contracts#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"PS\u2019 fight termination of contracts\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/\",\"name\":\"Lesotho\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"cfeditoren\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"PS\u2019 fight termination of contracts - Lesotho","description":"TEN principal secretaries who were sent on forced leave pending termination of their contracts say the move by the Sam M ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/ps-fight-termination-of-contracts","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"PS\u2019 fight termination of contracts","og_description":"TEN principal secretaries who were sent on forced leave pending termination of their contracts say the move by the Sam M ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/ps-fight-termination-of-contracts","og_site_name":"Lesotho","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa","article_published_time":"2023-05-08T15:28:01+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-05-08T16:47:55+00:00","og_image":[{"width":590,"height":354,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2023\/05\/postQueueImg_1683543608.81.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/ps-fight-termination-of-contracts#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/ps-fight-termination-of-contracts"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"PS\u2019 fight termination of contracts","datePublished":"2023-05-08T15:28:01+00:00","dateModified":"2023-05-08T16:47:55+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/ps-fight-termination-of-contracts"},"wordCount":861,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/ps-fight-termination-of-contracts#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2023\/05\/postQueueImg_1683543608.81.jpg","keywords":["Africa Press","Africa Press-Lesotho","Law","Lesotho"],"articleSection":["all news","head lines","policy"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/ps-fight-termination-of-contracts#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/ps-fight-termination-of-contracts","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/ps-fight-termination-of-contracts","name":"PS\u2019 fight termination of contracts - Lesotho","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/ps-fight-termination-of-contracts#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/ps-fight-termination-of-contracts#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2023\/05\/postQueueImg_1683543608.81.jpg","datePublished":"2023-05-08T15:28:01+00:00","dateModified":"2023-05-08T16:47:55+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"TEN principal secretaries who were sent on forced leave pending termination of their contracts say the move by the Sam M ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/ps-fight-termination-of-contracts#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/ps-fight-termination-of-contracts"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/ps-fight-termination-of-contracts#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2023\/05\/postQueueImg_1683543608.81.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2023\/05\/postQueueImg_1683543608.81.jpg","width":590,"height":354,"caption":"PS\u2019 fight termination of contracts"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/ps-fight-termination-of-contracts#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"PS\u2019 fight termination of contracts"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/","name":"Lesotho","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"cfeditoren"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28433\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}