(MENAFN- The Post) THE people of Fobane are mourning five people brutally murdered last Saturday. The suspects are still at large but the gory incident bears the hallmarks of a famo gang-related attack.
Precisely, the police suspect the killings are linked to famo gangs involved in illegal gold mining in South Africa. That these murders could be linked to famo gangs is not a discovery.
The gangs have left a trail of carnage in villages across the country.
The tit-for-tat murders have escalated over the years.
Yet, curiously, the number of suspects arrested and convicted has not increased at the same pace.
Hundreds have been killed in the gang wars but we are hard-pressed to recall any famo gangster convicted of murder. Those who have been arrested have been granted easy bail and skipped the country. Some routinely sneak in and out of the country to commit more murders.
There is brazen impunity about the murders.
At some point, the police should admit that it has neither the will nor the skills to deal with this menace. Yet that admission would just be a formality because their failure is well known. So is the fact that some in their ranks either belong to the same murderous gangs or supply them with illegal guns.
That complicity and incompetency explains why the police have dismally failed to deal with the gangs.
Politicians should take their fair share of the blame.
Some of them have openly embraced the gangs for political support. It is also known that some of them have received donations from the gangs. Little wonder their condemnation of the gangs appears timid and insincere.
We are disappointed that even this new government appears to have been quickly overwhelmed by this crisis. It doesn't seem that there is much political will to take the gangs head-on.
We have not heard of many cases in which Lesotho is seeking to extradite gangsters wanted for murders. If anything, we are aware that some of those wanted for murders in both Lesotho and South Africa continue to roam freely. Our parliament is not clamouring for action from the government.
Nor have the been shown any appetite for legislative interventions to tighten bail rules or make the sentences stiffer.
Because there is no law specific to criminal gangs in Lesotho, the police have failed to break up gangs. They know that most of the hitmen are acting on orders but they don't seem to have the capacity to go after the real bosses.
The investigations don't appear to be systematic.
The point we are making is that we need new laws and new systems to deal with the gangs.
We might also add that we probably need new police officers for this job.
We cannot continue to behave as if it's business as usual when gangs are wreaking havoc in our villages. The old strategies and laws have failed. The police, in its current form, has failed.
It's time to try new things.
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