There's no other word for it: our town dam stinks. Relentless over-grazing,
a world-class collection of cow pats around the perimeter, an occasional calf
dead in the water and algae spawned from the whole vile combination: a lethal
soup, it simmers pungently under our fierce Free State sky.
This week, however, I was reminded that we are a small smell compared with
Lesotho's Katse dam. There the stink has reached international proportions,
caused not by cattle but by corruption.
On Tuesday, the Appeal Court in Maseru met for an extraordinary session to
consider the sentence of two of the most important officials convicted of
bribery in Lesotho.
At the centre of the debate are Reatile Mochebelele and Letlafuoa Molapo. They
must be two of the most brazen crooks yet to serve in any public administration.
And, until they were found out, the luckiest as well.
In 1986, South Africa and Lesotho signed an agreement to contribute personnel
and resources to a joint permanent technical commission, the highest body
overseeing the vast Lesotho water project.
Mochebelele was Lesotho's chief representative on the commission, while his
lieutenant, Molapo, was another permanent delegate.
The commission's powers were enormous: most contracts needed its approval or the
approval of at least the Lesotho delegates, and its members had oversight of and
influence over the entire scheme.
One of the commission's tasks was to keep an eye on the body that ran the
project, the Lesotho Highlands Development Authority, whose chief executive was
Masupha Sole.
Some years ago, outed by his own greed, Sole was found to be the recipient of
bribes from international companies working on the dam. During the protracted
legal action against him, the two Lesotho commissioners told the court of the
damage done to the project by Sole's corrupt behaviour.
Disappointed funders, investors and even the courts comforted themselves with
the thought that at least the technical commission was still clean and could act
as a check against people like Sole; Mochebelele (aka Mr Untouchable) and Molapo
(aka Mr Clean) would ensure that the rot didn't spread.
But just when it seemed that the project had been scoured clean of corruption,
leaked information showed that Mr Untouchable and Mr Clean were common or garden
thieves, on the take from Lahmeyer, the German-based engineering consultancy.
Lahmeyer, already convicted of bribery in relation to its Sole payments, decided
to assist the prosecution of Mochebelele and Molapo. And that's how it emerged
that throughout their sanctimonious evidence against Sole, and long after, the
two had been accepting bribes from the German company.
In exchange for about R1.25 million, they were to ensure that the supreme
supervisory body on which they served would approve Lahmeyer's continued
employment on the dam project.
At one stage Mochebelele even negotiated more of the bribery pudding for
himself: from 1.66 percent of the contract to 2.5 percent of all new contracts.
Mochebelele and Molapo were acquitted by the High Court but convicted on appeal.
And when the Appeal Court sent the matter back to the High Court for sentencing,
Molapo's punishment was set at R200 000 or two years, with R1m or 10 years for
Mochabelele.
Though the highest fine yet imposed by the Maseru High Court, it was barely the
amount accepted in bribes. The prosecution, concerned that the fines were
unlikely to act as a deterrent, appealed against sentence. Thus Tuesday's issue
was just how much crime pays, or should be made to pay, in Lesotho.
During argument, the judges questioned whether the sentences were so
inappropriate the court should intervene; whether the significant disparity
between the two fines was appropriate; and whether the High Court had
misdirected itself in the way it had arrived at the sentence.
But throughout their questioning ran a thread of obvious concern - who guards
the guardians? What happens when the ultimate watchdogs fail to do their job?
When instead of barking at danger, they go over to the other side? When the
fabric of society is undermined by those whose sacred task is its defence?
The problem, as Guido Penzhorn for the Crown pointed out, is that there can be
no answer to a central question asked by the judges: to what extent was there
actual prejudice to the scheme?
It is in the very nature of corruption that once the rot begins, it spreads in
secret and no one can tell its extent.
Judgment is due later this week, but whatever the outcome, one thing has become
obvious from Lesotho's 14 years and more of experience: only strong leadership
can contain the rot of corruption.
Appoint a weak and compromised prosecuting authority, and resign yourself to a
permanent stink.
This article was originally published on page 16 of
The Star on December 10, 2009
With acknowledgements to
Carmel Richard
and Cape Times.
And two dingbats called me a busybody when
I complained in an affidavit about the corruptions charges being withdrawn
against a senior politician bribed by the most corrupt French arms dealing
company in the world.
One of the namecallers was the National Director of Public Prosecutions
(faithfully doing his job protecting his political boss.
The other namecaller was the legal representative of the corrupt politician,
faithfully doing his job protecting his boss.