NSS: A compromised secret service
‘MATHATO SEBOKA
MASERU – While their main responsibilities are not secret, due to the nature of their undercover duties the identities and tasks of operatives must remain secret, but the National Secret Service (NSS) and its agents has in recent times been too much in the news – and for the wrong reasons.
It can be argued that the NSS agents who are supposed to be secret operatives have shown a startling weakness, the prostitution of the nature of their job through self-exposition.
A conspicuous case in point is the purported audio clip which went viral late 2024 of a female agent (name withheld) who went on a rant against politician and Basotho National Party (BNP) leader Machesetsa Mofomobe.
Mofomobe himself has many times accused agents of the secret service of either stalking him or frustrating his court cases, the recent being his shooting in late January this year.
Mofomobe alleges that the NSS has, since the alleged shooting, publicly, persistently and vulgarly requested surveillance footage from one of his neighbours.
“I have a neighbour who has installed surveillance cameras that captured the areas where the incident occurred, members of the NSS have been harassing my neighbour demanding to be given this footage,” alleged Mofomobe at a presser he held recently.
Mofomobe said that he wondered for what ends the NSS operatives publicly demanded the footage since investigations surrounding the alleged shooting incident should only involve the Lesotho Mounted Police Services (LMPS).
He further said that he talked to the Deputy Prime Minister, Justice Nthomeng Majara and the Minister of Health, Selibe Mochoboroane, when they visited him at his house following the said shooting to caution the NSS agents not to interfere with his case.
While Mofomobe’s accusation has not been ascertained, it is clear that the NSS is deviating from its mandate of promotion and maintenance of the highest standards of state security, working covertly and in complete secrecy.
As a result, the question that quickly comes to mind is how Mofomobe would know that the NSS is seeking information surrounding his shooting?
Politician and Democratic Congress chairman, Bokang Ramatšella, thinks the NSS should “like a dog be returned to the leash.”
Ramatšella has called out NSS operatives’ growing and unregulated trend of online presence and commentary on social media platforms, where they expose themselves opposed to the fact that they “need not be seen.”
“By right, we are not supposed to know the NSS personnel because the nature of their job requires them to work as undercover agents, so this issue of the NSS being publicised on different media platforms and social media exposes and makes us to look at them as an incapable security and intelligence institution,” said Ramatšella.
He recalled the controversy around the departure of the previous NSS director general, Pheello Ralenkoane, who he accused of bringing the institution into repute – dragging its integrity through the mud.
“The issue of Ralenkoane’s conduct in the management of the institution that led to simple matters like the transfer of agents becoming fodder for social media commentators changed the state of NSS as a national intelligence agency…we saw then that they have completely derailed from their mandate and work ethic,” Ramatšella retorted.
He further cautioned that even though a sitting prime minister enjoys the prerogative to appoint an NSS director, such appointments should not be to the detriment of the credibility of the institution, where those elevated to the helm push agendas of the persons who appoint them.
“Even though the director general is chosen by the prime minister, the elected director has to subscribe to the institution’s mandate when he takes office,” said Ramatšella.
Retired army Lieutenant Colonel (Lt Col) Tanki Mothae, who has previously held the position of the Lesotho Defence Force Director Military Intelligence, holds a different view. Mothae suggests the NSS is still on the right course.
He said that from his point of view, the institution is still operating “appropriately.”
“In my own opinion, the NSS is still operating smoothly, they just need support so that their work can be easier. They should be given tools of the trade, which is the government’s obligation,” Lt Col Mothae said.
Mothae acknowledged, however, that the institution could still fall prey to operational hiccups like any other security service. He was adamant that everything that is happening within the agency is still guided by its founding Act.
“The NSS has the National Security Act that guides them, so anything happening at the NSS is given direction by the same Act,” Mothae opined.
Mothae showed that the NSS mandate goes hand in hand with the Constitution in terms of security, noting that could there be required changes to its operational mandate that would come about through the ongoing security sector reforms.
While other commentators propose for the NSS to be directly accountable to parliament and not a sitting minister of defence in order to rein it in , Chairperson of the National Assembly’s Portfolio Committee on Law and Public Safety, Everest Ramakatsa, agrees that it is possible for the NSS to report directly to parliament – but notes that this has to be for the “right reasons.”
“It is possible for the NSS to report straight to parliament and not to the prime minister as minister of defence, some countries are already practising that. But for this to happen there has to be clear reasons for the change in the controlling authority, and what that is meant to achieve,” Ramakatsa said.
He went on to suggest that the NSS is highly sensitive institution which must be independent and should not report solely to the executive.
“If the NSS reports to the executive alone or any of its arms, it definitely becomes inefficient because it is bound to be derailed from some of its duties and investigation…bent from its mandate by whoever controls it,” he further noted.
In the recent past in one of the most classical cases, the national intelligence agency has found itself on the back foot defending itself from the seizure of Mofomobe and then Democratic Congress youth leaguer, Moeketsi Shale’s mobile phones.
The Ralenkoane-ordered move saw the two politicians dragging the NSS to court, challenging the now retired NSS bosses’ affidavit deposited in court in which he accused them of masterminding the late radio anchor Ralikonelo Joki’s murder.
Ralenkoane deposed the affidavit in his justification of his decision to order the seizure of the duo’s mobile phones.
The court found the seizure illegal and absolved Mofomobe and Shale, leaving egg on Ralenkoane’s face and by extension on the institution he led – the NSS.
Mofomobe later launched an attack against Ralenkoane. He accused him of promoting female NSS officers in exchange for sex, to which Ralenkoane retorting by accusing Mofomobe of siphoning information from an NSS officer, one Ithabeleng Pitso, whom the Ralenkoane alleged the BNP had a love affair with.
Ralenkoane had attached communication between Pitso and Mofomobe to try and prove that they were intimate and she was abusing her position to leak information to Mofomobe.
All this happened in the public space.
Part VII of the National Security Service Act of 1998 patently states that all members of the service should swear to secrecy.
“A member or any other person employed in the Service shall preserve secrecy and aid in preserving secrecy in respect of a matter or information which may come to his knowledge in the exercise of his powers or performance of his duties and function under this Act and shall not disclose or communicate the matter or information to any unauthorised person or permit a person to have access to any documents in his possession or custody except in so far as the communication is required to be made in compliance with this Act or any other law,” the law which state intelligence agents seem oblivious to states.
The fine for overstepping the rule is a fine of up to M30 000.
An open question remains, do the agents in the employ of the NSS subscribe to this Act that governs their conduct, do they live by it?
