Police officer killed by famo gang

(MENAFN- The Post) MASERU – A police sergeant in Mokhotlong was ambushed and brutally murdered by suspected famo gang members last Saturday.
District and police authorities said Sergeant Qetelo Letšela was driving his 12-year-old child to school when he was kidnapped by a suspected Seakhi famo gang.
Serame Linake, the Mokhotlong District Administrator (DA), told thepost that he heard that the gang members waylaid Sergeant Letšela, forced him to stop the car and dragged him out.

He said they then took him to a nearby cliff where they severely beat him before slitting his throat. His body was found the following day.
“It is alleged that the officer was killed because they accused him of taking sides when he dealt with the famo gang wars in the area,” Linake said.
He said this allegation has not been confirmed but Sergeant Letšela was investigating gang-related murders in the district.
Police Minister Lepota Sekola has also confirmed that Sergeant Letšela was working on murder cases involving famo gangs.
“It is alleged that he was taking sides in the famo gang wars but this has not been confirmed yet”.

Police spokesman Senior Superintendent Mpiti Mopeli said four suspects have been arrested and investigations are continuing.
“It is just a rumour that he was killed by famo members,” S/Supt Mopeli said, adding that“we only hear the allegations that it is because they accused him of taking sides”.
“I have only heard that the murder is associated with famo gangs.”
The Lesotho Police Staff Association (Leposa) spokesman, Motlatsi Mofokeng, said they heard that Sergeant Letšela was kidnapped by 10 men.
Mofokeng said the sergeant was driving to Khubelu, a place where earlier this year seven family members were gunned down by alleged famo gangsters who also torched several houses and cars.

Mofokeng said the association is worried about the rate at which police officers are being killed. He said last week they buried a police officer who was shot outside his house in Maputsoe. The body, he said, was riddled with 21 bullets.
He said around the same time another police officer was gunned down in Ha-Leqele, a village south east of Maseru.
The Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD)'s youth league this week condemned the murders.
The league president, Phetho Matla, said this could have been triggered by the way the police used to ill-treat the public.
“The police are here to protect the people and we condemn their killing,” Matla said.

He said it is worrying that politicians, especially the two ruling parties of the All Basotho Convention (ABC) and the Democratic Congress (DC), are seen aligning themselves with famo gangs instead of working to stop them.
The two parties have openly associated with the gangs.
In the past election, Seakhi supported the DC while Terene, its rival, threw its weight behind the ABC.

Now a faction of Terene that followed its late leader, Rethabile Mokete (popularly known as Mosotho Chakela), has joined the DC.
Matla said such alliances ahead of elections“lead to criminals hiding behind the gangs to commit crimes while knowing that they are protected by the government”.
Terene and Seakhi are fierce rival famo gangs that have been fighting for decades.

Unconfirmed reports say tit-for-tat killings between their members have claimed more than 100 lives in Lesotho and South Africa.
Only a few of those murder cases have been solved.
Efforts by the government and the police to broker a peace deal between the gangs have come to naught.

Nkheli Liphoto

MENAFN17082021000229011070ID1102637874