It reached its pinnacle after the change of government, with the fatal shooting of Lt-Gen Maaparankoe Mahao in June 2015 by fellow members of the LDF under claims that he had resisted arrest for his alleged involvement in a mutiny plot within the army. The tragedy was preceded by the arrest of some officers and members of the LDF on allegations of planning a mutiny. The period leading to regime change, and immediately after it, was one characterised by insecurity in the country, marked by opposition leaders, their followers and some members of the LDF fleeing the country by for fear of being assassinated by the LDF. The glaring blaze approach of the government of the day in Lesotho, in arresting these acts and bringing about a sense of normalcy, as well as its blatant disregard for the work of the SADC Commission of Inquiry led by Judge Phumaphi, and resistance to implement its sweeping recommendations, which would clearly shake the LDF command, clearly point to the fact that the current Lesotho government and the LDF are in cahoots on this situation. This should not surprise given that at the time of the stand-off between then prime-minister and the army command, the two leading parties in the current coalition government had come out openly to countenance and embolden the unprecedented defiance of the LDF.
Since Lesotho attained independence in October 1966, the only time that relations between government and army were relatively stable was during the period 1965-70. After this period, to date, the LDF has been dogged by manipulation and politicisation, lack of professionalism and reported acts of human rights abuses. As I have written in the past, this has been all, ‘’as a result of the politicians’ penchant to use the military for their own narrow political purposes that propels the military, in specific its senior hierarchy, to openly support a given political party or parties as it is happening at the moment. This has unfortunately tipped the circumstances in the political arena from being within the capability of our politicians to solve, to one requiring external intervention and inviting our peaceful nation the opprobrium of the international community and uncomfortable spotlight of the world media.”
