(MENAFN- The Post) MASERU -AN explosive affidavit in a High Court case has exposed how the Democratic Congress allegedly received six campaign vehicles from a Pakistani national notorious for human trafficking.
Rana Qamar, the alleged kingpin of the human trafficking ring, then tried to use two cabinet ministers to force an immigration officer to let two Pakistanis to come into Lesotho illegally.
And when Mapeete Jonathan, the immigration manager refused, Qamar tried to engineer her transfer from Moshoeshoe 1 International Airport.
Jonathan has now filed an urgent application to block the Ministry of Home Affairs from transferring her. She says the transfer is motivated by malice and is meant to punish her for refusing to allow the Pakistanis into the country.
But it is the allegations in her affidavit that exposes the extent to which human trafficking rings have a grip on Lesotho and its senior government officials.
It reveals that human trafficking could be happening with the tacit approval of senior government officials who are supposed to nip it in the bud.
Jonathan names Deputy Prime Minister Mathibeli Mokhothu and Mines Minister Serialong Qoo as the officials close to Qamar.
She says her troubles started on March 6 this year when she detained two Pakistanis who wanted to illegally enter Lesotho through the airport.
Jonathan claims while she was preparing to deport the two Qoo and Qamar tried to pressure her to allow them into the country.
She says she refused to succumb to their 'unlawful pressure' and reported the incident to the Director of Immigration, Mantsebo Matsoanakaba.
Jonathan says Qoo and Qamar also tried to persuade Matsoanakaba to allow the Pakistanis into the country but she refused.
Matsoanakaba's supporting affidavit as well as several documents submitted to the court support Jonathan's allegations.
Jonathan alleges that in October the senior immigration officer, Mpho Tsiame, with whom she works with at the airport, told her that she had been to a meeting where her impending transfer was discussed.
She says Tsiame told her that Qamar invited her to Mokhothu's house in Maseru West.
The meeting allegedly happened before the coalition government was formed.
Jonathan says Tsiame revealed that the nub of the discussion was that Qamar had bought the DC six vehicles for the election campaign and the party 'owed him'.
She said Tsiame told her that 'Qamar said that there were a lot of Pakistanis who needed to come to Lesotho but that I (Jonathan) was a stumbling block as I was denying them entry into Lesotho'.
Jonathan says Qamar then asked Tsiame to help get her removed from the airport so more Pakistanis would enter the country.
'In return Mr Qamar promised Ms Tsiame they would make sure that her child gets a job at foreign missions,' Jonathan alleges.
It is not clear what Mokhuthu, the DC leader, said in that meeting.
Tsiame has also filed an affidavit confirming Jonathan's account of her meeting with Mokhothu and Qamar. Tsiame says she knew Jonathan was going to be transferred 'for refusing Pakistanis who did not have proper documentation entry into the country Lesotho'.
'My conscience would not allow me to watch in silence as the state machinery was being unleashed on an innocent incorruptible official for unshakably discharging her responsibilities towards her nation,' Tsiame adds.
She says she immediately reported the meeting to Immigration Director Matsoanakaba. Matsoanakaba, in her affidavit, confirms receiving the report from Tsiame and informing the Home Affairs' principal secretary, Tumelo Raboletsi, about the alleged motives behind Jonathan's transfer.
The finer details of what happened when Jonathan denied the two Pakistanis entry are contained in several documents attached to the court papers.
In an October 13 memo to Raboletsi, Matsoanakaba narrates how Qoo came to her office to ask her to allow the Pakistanis into the country.
Matsoanakaba says Qoo asked her to call the DC's treasurer, Hlalele Lets'aba, who repeated Qoo's request.
She says Lets'aba told her that Qamar was helping 'them in mobilising financial assistance back in Pakistan'.
'I told him that Rana was known for trafficking in persons and I did not think he was the right person they would want to associate themselves with,' Matsoanakaba says.
On the same day Matsoanakaba wrote another revealing memo to the principal secretary.
This time she alleges that Qoo came to her office to plead that the two Pakistanis be allowed in. She said Qoo and Lets'aba then called Qamar to her officer to explain himself.
'He (Qamar) came to my office and told me that he had received money in dollars from someone in South Africa who had asked him to receive the Pakistanis at Moshoeshoe 1 Airport and facilitate their transit into RSA,' Matsoanakaba says.
She alleges that Qamar begged her to allow the Pakistanis entry and even offered her some dollars.
This paper could not find proof that Mokhothu, Qoo and Lets'aba are directly involved in Qamar's alleged human trafficking.
Jonathan's allegations indicate that Lesotho is being used as a corridor to traffic people into South Africa. She said when she arrived at the airport she discovered that there was an influx of Pakistanis who were entering the country using fraudulent visas.
She claims as they were deporting many Pakistanis some started using illegal e-visas to come into Lesotho. Those Pakistanis were picked up by some people and transferred to South Africa, Jonathan says.
Last night Mokhothu said he could not comment because the matter is now in court. He referred us to the Minister of Home Affairs Motlalentoa Letsosa's speech in parliament.
Qoo, who is also DC spokesperson, said he is not surprised about the 'lies' against him.
He said the people who are saying this have their own agenda against him and his leader Mokhothu.
'If they have information about me, why can't they go to the police?' Qoo said.
'A lot of bad things have been said about me and my leader.'
Lets'aba vehemently denied the allegations, calling them 'pure lies'.
'This is just a smear campaign. It is just a political matter,' Lets'aba said.
'I do not understand how l'm connected with that,' he said.
'I do not understand how a person of my calibre could be associated with such practices'.
He said he heard that some Ministry of Home Affairs officials who do not want to be transferred 'are the ones spreading these lies'.
'I want the reforms to be completed so that we do not have civil servants meddling in politics,' he said.
Staff Reporter
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