Explosive Asset Recovery Report concealed

…as safety fears surface

MOTSAMAI MOKOTJO

MASERU – Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office, Limpho Tau, deliberately withheld critical information about the challenges faced by Government Assets Search Recovery Task Team (GASRTT).

Information on answers prepared for Tau before the Senate in the Order Paper dated April 9, 2025, was put on ice including critical information written by the GASRTT team on Senator Pontšo Mathealira questions.

Minister Tau bizarrely selected to the omit critical elements of the data much to the obliviousness of members of the upper House, Public Eye can reveal.

This paper has seen prepared answers written for Tau who merticulously opted only to address the issue of the legal standing of the team while gleefully ignoring other concerns as per the Order Paper dated the same date, according to the Senate’s Facebook page.

Astonishingly, the minister decided to remit issues related to bureaucracy related to budget and resource mobilization, which appeared in the presentation.

“The team has also facilitated a new survey of one hundred and forty (140) government sites by Land Survey and Physical Planning (LSPP) around Maseru that were left vulnerable to be taken illegally.

“Twenty-five (25) sites were recovered from people who were illegally occupying them; some cases are still under investigation, out of which ten (10) criminal cases have been completed and are awaiting approval by the public prosecutions,” the minister’s presentation indicated.

He had to continue, but he omitted that: “The team’s mandate has not been thoroughly communicated to supporting ministries to assume its rightful value and level of importance; hence it becomes difficult for the team to get expected reception for needed services. Most follow-ups…are not attended to and the team is referred back to higher authorities.

“…The budget had been drawn, but was never approved. Improvising on a few occasions, the OPM (Office of the Prime Minister) allowed the team to run its operations from the OPM budget…It has been that this arrangement will continue in the 2024/2025 on full scale, however, the team is not able to make accommodation bookings outside Maseru because of debts accrued by OPM.”

It also flags the lack of vehicles of the team that has been allocated two and security risks “intimidation character assignation and possible persecution upon regime change.”   

When contacted for comment, Tau ignored calls from not just this reporter but also others from this publication.

This reporter went as far as reaching out to the team’s chairperson, Advocate Seeng Matšosa, who simply ignored calls and WhatsApp texts.

Her deputy, Moepana Kopo, simply said he doesn’t know what this reporter “is talking about” before dropping the call.

“I am not a civil servant, so I don’t account; I am saying this team was established by the Cabinet,” Cabinet Principal Secretary Mabataung Khalane said before a joint sitting of the Public Accounts Committee and the Economic and Development Cluster Portfolio Committee, insisting that the team does investigations and ultimately gives reports.  “However, as an independent team, I don’t control it by informing it of which investigations to undertake; it’s their own volition to do their own duties,” Khalane said.

Parliament summoned the recovery team after successive articles—Xie Seizes Government Property… The implicated former minister says the deal is legitimate, and the government’s asset recovery team is on John’s heels – by this publication.

Yet despite the hazardous tasks of the duty, a concerned Matšosa told Public Eye last week that unlike other senior officers in high-risk positions such as Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Ombudsman, and others, she has been left to fend for herself.

Prime Minister Ntsokoane Matekane – during his inauguration in 2022 – announced that the government would take stock of all properties belonging to it in a bid to reduce wastage.

This was further articulated by Tau in March 2023, when he said the government had established an 11-member task team meant to investigate and reclaim its assets.

“The team has hit the ground running and is leaving no stone unturned in our quest to recover government assets that were acquired unlawfully by individuals since independence in 1966,” Tau said during a press briefing.

“My job inherently is dangerous, but it doesn’t make sense that I don’t have security; I remember that during the investigation about the alleged violations of torture at LCS (Lesotho Correctional Services), one senior official conducting investigations was/has been provided with security detail.

“Prime Minister (Sam) Matekane and Minister (in the Prime Minister’s Office Limpho) Tau know about my situation. However, the buck stops with PS Cabinet, who needs to inform superiors,” a concerned Matšosa said.

She further highlighted that since they don’t have a legal standing because they were established via a Cabinet decision, it makes it difficult for them to execute their duties.

“I was being looked for all over because Minister Tau had to go give answers to the Senate about the work of my team.

“My fear is that we will be sued if there’s nothing that stands; we were promised that Tau and the Minister of Law (Richard Ramoeletsi) would expedite our existence, but it hasn’t materialized,” the chairperson told this publication.

She further said that budget constraints have also contributed to their lackluster yet dangerous duty of recovering government assets.

A meagre M3 million was allocated to the team when it first started but was cut the following year to M2 million.

“Currently we solely depend on the Cabinet and don’t even have the budget we used to receive for operations,” she said.