Members of Lesotho’s government have been implicated in the 1982 cross-border raid that claimed the lives of nine people
Jubie Matlou
Former police commissioner Johan van der Merwe is claiming personal responsibility for the December 1985 raid into Lesotho which resulted in the massacre of six underground African National Congress operatives and three Lesotho nationals.
This startling admission was made by Van der Merwe in his application before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s amnesty committee earlier this week. Van der Merwe told the committee that he ordered the raid in the belief he had the tacit approval of the State Security Council, and by implication, the approval of then state president PW Botha.
It has come to light that the notorious Vlakplaas counter-insurgency unit was entrusted with responsibility for executing the raid. Ex-Vlakplaas commander Eugene de Kock was the first of six former policemen to apply for amnesty for the raid and the massacre.
Van der Merwe’s admission contrasts sharply with official South African Police and Defence Force statements at the time, which denied responsibility for or involvement in the illegal cross- border attack.
The South African security establishment completely disowned the 1985 raid, unlike the 1982 Maseru raid in which South Africa claimed responsibility for the killing of 42 ANC operatives.
Instead, the Lesotho Liberation Army (LLA), the military wing of the exiled Basotho Congress Party (BCP), claimed responsibility for the 1985 attack. At the time, the BCP and its armed wing were alleged to be based in South Africa: the organisation had been expelled from the Frontline states for collaborating with apartheid South Africa in destabilising the government of former Lesotho prime minister Chief Leabua Jonathan.
A man calling himself Mophete Mophete and identifying himself as an LLA operative claimed responsibility on behalf of the exiled armed movement in a telephone call to the SABC’s Bloemfontein radio news division.
The claim endorsed the belief that the then BCP leader, the late Ntsu Mokhetle, had at one stage found sanctuary at Vlakplaas.
The BCP subsequently split into two factions, and one of them – the Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD) – is now the ruling party. Theba Motebang, an ex-LLA operative and now a Lesotho MP and the LCD chair, denied allegations this week that he was the one who phoned the SABC and claimed responsibility for the attack. He claimed that during his exile days his nom de guerre was Matladi Setlhabaka.
“I reject with contempt allegations that I was the person who phoned the SABC claiming responsibility for the cross- border raid attack … It’s a blue lie … In fact, the LLA, including myself, learned about the incident a few weeks later,” Motebang said in a telephonic interview with the Mail & Guardian.
The allegations against Motebang surfaced a few years ago in the run-up to Lesotho’s 1998 general election, the first in over 25 years – and contested by a BCP riddled with internal power struggles. During the hearing of a court application challenging the election of the party’s new leadership, a lawyer questioned Motebang on his knowledge of the LLA’s claim to the December 1985 cross-border raid.
Motebang confirmed he had been an LLA operative from the mid-1970s, and that in the mid-1980s he was based on the Qwa-Qwa side of the Maluti ranges. However, he denied allegations of the LLA’s collaboration with Vlakplaas, and claimed he only learned about the 1985 raid a few weeks after it took place.
That raid was followed, a few weeks later, by a South African blockade of the Lesotho border in an attempt to coerce the tiny mountain kingdom to abandon its policy of providing refuge to members of the ANC. Within a week of the blockade, Lesotho was reeling from a shortage of basic goods such as foodstuffs and fuel.
The economic siege led to a coup, in which General Metsing Lekhanya of the Lesotho Paramilitary Force toppled the government of Jonathan.
During the amnesty committee hearings this week, Pik Botha, former South African foreign minister and now aspirant ANC member, told the committee he had not been not aware at the time of any pending military-style raid into Lesotho because he was busy flying between Cape Town and Pretoria executing his responsibilities as a minister. Botha said he had believed contemporary media reports that the LLA carried out the attack.
The amnesty committee learned that the six Vlakplaas operatives, including De Kock, were awarded medals for bravery by the South African Police.
The hearing has been adjourned until June 5 to hear the submissions of Neil Barnard and Niel van Heerden – ex-directors general of national intelligence and of foreign affairs, respectively – who are being subpoenaed for the 1985 Lesotho raid.
The six ANC operatives who were killed during the raid are Leon Meyer and his wife Jackie Quin, Joseph Mayoli, Nonkosi Mini, Ngwenduna Wanda and Sipho Gumede.
If the amnesty committee could have its way, the entire Lesotho government would be hauled before the inquiry.
But Phila Nqgumba, the committee’s media director, told the M&G that the commission’s inquiry powers are confined within the borders of South Africa, and there is no provision for the commission to subpoena the government of another country.