Mohloai Mpesi
The High Commissioner of Lesotho to London, Rethabile ‘Mahlompho Mokaeane has been fired from her diplomatic post effective from next month, Newsday has learnt.
This is due to the letter inked on Wednesday this week by the new Principal Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Relations Thabo Motoko.
The letter addressed to the diplomat headlined “Recall from High Commission London to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs-Lesotho” comes after lengthy squabbles that erupted at the London embassy between Mokaeane and her Third Secretary, Phomolo ‘Mantolo Motloheloa over mismanagement of the Embassy operational funds.
According to the letter, Mokaeane is set to assume her full responsibilities as resident Ambassador as of next month.
“Kindly be informed that a decision is reached to recall you from the High Commission-London back to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Relations to assume full duties and responsibilities of Resident Ambassador, Grade K, with effect from September 1, 2021,” the letter reads.
The tiffs that vented at the embassy included Mokaeane’s loud cry that the mismanagement of funds at the consulate had spilled to her children’s school fees which ran a lengthy period unpaid. This she said before the National Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) few months back which signalled a sour relationship between the two diplomats.
Mokaeane told the accounts committee that her children’s school fees of last year’s second and third quarters had not been settled and that she sought answers regarding the usage of last year’s fiscal allocation from the Third Secretary to no avail.
The school fees of three of Mokaeane’s children was estimated to cost £19 000 per a child, which is roughly around M4million in a year for all the children.
However, Motloheloa retaliated that the High Commissioner refused to send her kids to public school which is free but opted for the expensive private school, charging that Mokaeane gossiped about her behind her back with a convoy of diplomats.
In a letter read by the Principal Secretary of Foreign Affairs before PAC, the Third Secretary addressed to the then Principal Secretary, Retired Colonel Tanki Mothae where she sought urgent intervention on December 4, 2019 in regard to her unpaid rent instigated deliberately by the High Commissioner, but the latter refuted all the allegations, charging that Motloheloa’s behaviour was foul-tasting.
“I would like to bring to your attention that my rent was due on the November 29, 2019. I have submitted all necessary documents to the High Commissioner who clearly indicated that she will not pay my rent unless I pay school fees for her children. She further insisted that she will pay rent only after I have paid salary for December 2019.
“I humbly request your intervention as the Landlord is stressing me with the legal action if I do not pay before end of business today. It is worth mentioning that as a young diplomat, this situation is unbearable for me and my family,” Motloheloa said in the letter.
