DC legislator assaults man at Tele

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KHAHLISO KHATALA and

LITEBOHO MOLEKO

MASERU – Mothepu Mahapa, the Democratic Congress (DC) representative for the Tele constituency in the recently dissolved 10th Parliament is accused of assaulting 38-year-old Tumelo Lengoasa, together with a group of men at Tele last month. Lengoasa sustained injuries to the head and leg and is still recovering. Public Eye inquiries indicate that the victim’s leg remains cast in a plaster to date. Lesotho Mounted Police Service (LMPS) spokesperson, Senior Superintendent Mpiti Mopeli, confirmed the incident in an interview with week.

He, however, could not be drawn into detailing the status of the case, only indicating that the incident and Mahapa’s involvement were reported to the police in the area. Inquiries reveal that the group of men, who included Mahapa, assaulted Lengoasa in his yard at night as he arrived home before getting inside. After the assault his legs were broken and he had a wound on his head while the other leg shows signs of being assaulted with a sharp object.

Lengoasa’s mother told this paper that she was called to the scene after her son was taken to the hospital. She continued that her son narrated the ordeal to her. “He said, ‘I arrived at home at night and while I was still outside a group of men arrived and surrounded me. I stepped back and tried to run but they fired a gunshot and I stopped thinking maybe it was the police. They approached me and started beating me with rods without uttering a word’”.

’Malehlohonolo Lengoasa added that after beating her son Mahapa and his group dragged him not far from the scene of the crime where he was able to spot the legislator among the group, he asked him how it was possible that he was amongst the group assaulting him. They told him they will beat him “because you have made his place a den of thieves” Lengoasa’a mother continued.

“He asked Ntate Mahapa, ‘Are you also one of the people beating me’, and he replied that he was doing it because he has turned his home into a thieves’ camp. He demanded to see one Bokang even though my son says he does not know who Bokang is,” she said. Tele police reportedly obtained a statement from Lengoasa and handed him a medical form to go see a doctor. Lengoasa, according to the mother, is recovering well; the stiches on his head were removed but still has a cast on his leg.

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