(MENAFN- The Post) THE Ombudsman has asked parliament to intervene to force the Lesotho Defence Force (LDF) to compensate families of people killed by soldiers.
Advocate Tlotliso Polaki told parliament, in two damning reports on Monday, that the LDF is refusing to compensate the family of Lisebo Tang who was shot dead by soldiers near the former commander, Lieutenant General Tlali Kamoli's home in 2014.
The LDF, she said, is also refusing to compensate the family of Molapo Molapo who was killed by a group of soldiers at his home in Peka, Ha-Leburu in 2022.
Advocate Polaki wrote the LDF in January last year saying it should pay Tang's mother, Makhola Tang, M300 000“as a reasonable and justifiable redress for loss of support”.
The Tang family claim investigation started in February 2022 and the LDF responded that it“had undertaken the responsibility for funeral expenses and other related costs”.
Advocate Polaki investigated whether the LDF could be held accountable for Tang's death and whether his family should be compensated while the criminal case is pending.
She found that the soldiers were“acting within the scope of their employment to protect the army commander and his family” when they killed Tang.
Soldiers killed Tang in Lithabaneng while she was in a parked car with her boyfriend at what the army termed“a compromising spot” near the commander's residence.
The three soldiers peppered the vehicle with a volley of shots, killing Tang and wounding the boyfriend.
Advocate Polaki found that the army arranged to pay for the funeral costs and to continue buying groceries and school needs for Tang's daughter.
The LDF, however, kept this for only four years but abruptly stopped.
When asked why it stopped, the army said“there is a criminal case pending in court”.
The army also said it felt that it would be admitting guilt if it compensated the Tang's family.
The Ombudsman said“a civil claim for pecuniary compensation lodged is not dependent on the criminal proceedings running at the same time”.
“The LDF created a legitimate but unreasonable expectation and commitments between themselves and the complainant which had no duration attached thereto and which showed a willingness to cooperate and work harmoniously together,” Advocate Polaki found.
“The LDF was correct in withdrawing such benefit in the absence of a clear policy guideline or order to continue to offer such benefit or advantage,” she said.
“However, she should have been consulted first as the decision was prejudicial to her interest.”
She said the army's undertaking“fell short of a critical element of duration and reasonability”.
Tang was a breadwinner working at Pick 'n Pay Supermarket as a cleaner earning M2 000 a month.
Her daughter, the Ombudsman said, is now in grade six and her school fees alone had escalated to M3 200 per year.
She said an appropriate redress should be premised on her family's loss of income and future loss of support based on her salary and the prejudice suffered by her mother and daughter.
She said M300 000 is“a reasonable and justifiable redress for loss of support”.
In Molapo's case, Advocate Polaki told parliament that the LDF refused to implement her recommendations to compensate his two daughters.
The complainant is his father, Thabo Joel Molapo.
The Ombudsman told the army in August last year that it should pay the girls M423 805“for the negligent death of their father”.
Advocate Polaki said despite that the criminal matter is before the court,“it is established that the Ombudsman can assert her jurisdiction and make determinations on the complaint”.
Molapo, 32, was brutally murdered by a soldier in Peka in December 2020.
Molapo had earlier fought with the soldier and disarmed him.
The soldier, the Ombudsman found, rushed to Mokota-koti army post to request backup to recover his rifle. When he returned with his colleagues, they found him hiding in his house. The soldier then shot Molapo.
The LDF, the Ombudsman said, conceded that the soldier killed Molapo while on duty and that he had been subjected to internal disciplinary processes.
“The LDF is bound by the consequences of the officer's actions who was negligent and caused Molapo's death,” she said.
She found that after Molapo was killed, army officers and the Minister of Defence visited his family and pledged to pay his children's school fees. They also promised to hire one of his relatives who would“cater for the needs of the deceased's children going forward”.
The LDF, she said, has now reneged on its promises saying its“recruitment policy and legal considerations did not allow for such decision to be implemented”.
Molapo's father told the Ombudsman that the LDF said“the undertakings were not implementable and were made by the minister at the time just to console the family”.
All the payments in the two cases, the Ombudsman has asked parliament, should be made within three months.
Staff Reporter
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