The South African Police Service (SAPS) says it has found concerning pockets of Basotho within the borders of South Africa, as the law enforcement agencies investigate allegations of Lesotho nationals undergoing military training camps in South Africa.
On Monday, reported that national police commissioner of SAPS, General Fannie Masemola, was in Lesotho, meeting chief of the Lesotho Mounted Police Service (LMPS), advocate Borotho Matsoso who made the allegations of the Basotho military-style training camps in South Africa.
Matsoso has previously asserted that the Lesotho authorities have credible information about Basotho undergoing military-style training in certain farms within South Africa, as part of the growing campaign to fight for the contentious land in South Africa’s provinces.
The claimed land included parts of the Free State, Eastern Cape, Mpumalanga, Northern Cape, and KwaZulu-Natal provinces.
In an update following the police chiefs’ meeting, the co-chairperson of the National Joint Operational and Intelligence Structure (NATJoints) in South Africa, Lieutenant General Tebello Mosikili, who was part of the meeting, said the two neighbouring countries are currently jointly working together to share information.
“The two police chiefs have met with the delegation from South Africa and Lesotho which comprised of the intelligence community, the investigators, as well as the members of visible policing. The intention of that meeting that we had with our counterparts was to clarify from the correspondence, or the media statements that were made, the media interview that the commissioner of Lesotho, advocate Matsoso, had earlier in the past month,” Mosikili spoke to broadcaster Newzroom Afrika.
“We have undertaken the investigation, as was directed and the meeting was to clarify and try to establish the exacts as well as to get the data that has been collected by the intelligence community of Lesotho. Both countries are currently jointly working together to share information and to explore because the areas that were communicated with the South African authorities at the time were investigated, and the traces of the military-style training were not discovered in those areas.
“However, there are pockets of individuals who were found in some parts of our country, bordering with Lesotho and in-land which were concerning. So, the expansion of this investigation will go beyond what you will look at as a military setup. But to look at any other form of training, because we believe it might be masqueraded as any other form of training. So that is the angle we are taking now.
Mosikili stated it would be “pretty premature” to say the Basotho military-style training is not happening in South Africa.
The police chiefs agreed that they will do a review in the next seven days, after comparing the intelligence gathered by the South African and the Lesotho sides.
While the investigations are deepening, the suspected Basotho nationals have been arrested and charged with being in South Africa illegally. According to Mosikili, the group comprises fewer than 100 individuals.
Last month, Mosikili stated that investigations had been conducted in different parts of South Africa, but nothing has been found to back the Lesotho authorities’ information.
“Yes, we did receive an alert following the revelations made by the police commissioner of Lesotho. We were alerted by the statement that was on his social media account and we did not rest from the time that we received such. We have deployed all our operatives on the ground to establish the facts, including our bilaterals that we are having, because we do have bilaterals with Lesotho,” Mosikili previously told the television news channel.
She said several engagements were also made within the SAPS, bringing in provincial and national sections of the law enforcement agency, without discounting the alarm raised by the Lesotho police.
previously reported that in July, a Lesotho member of parliament, Dr Tshepo Lipholo, leader of the Basotho Covenant Movement, a political party that has been leading the charge in demanding the return of Lesotho’s “stolen land” which is part of current-day South Africa, was arrested and charged in the mountain kingdom.
Lipholo faces serious charges, including sedition and incitement, and is also accused of violating the dignity and reputation of Lesotho’s royal family by allegedly declaring himself the “paramount chief of Basotholand” and encouraging young Basotho to prepare for armed struggle.
It is alleged that audio clips circulating on social media platforms prove these claims.
Lipholo has been advocating for certain sections of South Africa to be recognised as Lesotho’s territory. Limpholo wants the land to be returned to the governance of Lesotho.
Earlier this year, Lipholo travelled to the United Nations, where he submitted a claim that seeks to reclaim land lost during the colonial era.
However, Lesotho’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Relations distanced itself from Lipholo, stating he was acting on his own agenda, and the UN trip was not sanctioned by the Maseru government.
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