We''ll walk out, says ABC

(MENAFN - The Post) MASERU – SHARP differences between the two leading parties over a SADC-backed National Peace and Unity Commission are threatening to collapse the coalition government.At a National Executive Committee meeting on Monday, Prime Minister Moeketsi Majoro's ruling All Basotho Convention (ABC) party unanimously agreed that they will not back the Commission. The party said it would rather pull out of the government than endorse the controversial commission.The ABC spokesman Montoeli Masoetsa told thepost yesterday that endorsing the proposed Bill would be tantamount to promoting impunity.''We will not tolerate people who commit crimes with impunity. Justice must prevail,'' Masoetsa said. ''The government must rather fall instead of allowing people to commit crimes with impunity. All we want is justice to prevail.''SADC envoy Justice Dikgang Moseneke is pushing the National Peace and Unity Commission as a vehicle for national healing and reconciliation.The Democratic Congress (DC), the second biggest partner in the coalition government, is supporting the Commission. This has now set the two parties on a collision course that is now threatening to torpedo the government.DC leader Mathibeli Mokhothu told a party rally in Tele constituency last Saturday that they are fully behind the Bill.He described those who are opposed to the Bill as ''enemies of peace in the country because this thing will bring together the people who were hurt from 1964, 1970, 1974, 1998 and 2014''. Masoetsa said the ABC national executive committee discussed the issue on Monday and were unanimous that they will reject the Bill.He said the ABC does not mind being in opposition ''rather than embrace criminals''.Masoetsa said the ABC was prepared to withdraw from the government over the matter. He said after Lieutenant General Maaparankoe Mahao was murdered in 2015, SADC set up a Commission of Inquiry headed by Botswana judge, Justice Mphaphi Phumaphi.Justice Phumaphi recommended that all perpetrators of gross human rights violations must be prosecuted, ''and now all of a sudden some people want to stop the prosecution''. He said SADC sent three judges to preside over the cases adding that they are surprised that its envoy, Justice Moseneke, is now pushing to stop the prosecutions.''We will not compromise (on) the rule of law, we would rather be in the opposition,'' he said.Masoetsa said if people choose criminal impunity over justice, then the ABC would not be part of that. Masoetsa said the ABC wants not just individuals who committed the crimes to appear before the Commission but the political parties that were behind the atrocities to be shamed.''We want the politicians who sent the people who killed Mahao and Ramahloko too,'' he said. Sub-Inspector Monaheng Ramahloko was killed at the police headquarters on August 29, 2014 when the army raided police stations and the State House in an attack the government said was an attempted coup.The ABC deputy chairman, Chalane Phori, said the party ''will not vote for the Bill''.Phori said the Bill is meant to get criminals who murdered innocent people off the hook.''There is no need for us to be here as a party if we will not fight for justice,'' Phori said. ''It doesn''t matter if the government collapses. The four-by-four government in which I was a minister collapsed and I am still here,'' he said.''Any cabinet member who is a member of the ABC will abide by the decision of the party leadership. Also all ABC MPs will abide by the decision of the party.''He said party leader, Thomas Thabane, Prime Minister Moeketsi Majoro and secretary general Lebohang Hlaele were part of the decision on Monday. ''The Prime Minister will follow the direction his party gives him.''The National Peace and Unity Bill 2021 will have powers to grant amnesty to those accused of gross human rights violations.The Bill seeks to set up a National Peace and Unity Commission that will have powers to ''grant amnesty where it is satisfied that the witness testified truthfully and in full''. The Commission may also forgive gross human rights violators ''where the nature and manner of carrying out the violation was not grossly inhumane''.It may also pardon a witness who ''has shown remorse and has undertaken not to commit the act again''.Where the Commission has not granted amnesty, the case shall resume with immediate effect in courts of law. Nkheli Liphoto Like this:Like Loading...MENAFN22062021000229011070ID1102328026