Mohloai Mpesi
Former Prime Minister and founder of co-ruling Democratic Congress (DC), Dr Pakalitha Mosisili has buttressed his party’s plan to have the hangman’s noose law implemented.
Mosisili told the press on Tuesday this week at a conference in Maseru that brigning back the capital punishment would likely help bring a stop to the rampant brutal killings that have taken a trend.
He indicated that although the practice has not been outlawed, it was only last used to hang the killer of the late legendary music icon, Tšepo Tšola’s wife who was mercilessly butchered in cold blood in 1996.
“There is a friend of mine living in Botswana who sent me a text asking why there is no heavy sentence against a murderer, instead of incarcerating that person for a short time and letting them out.
“For instance, my brother was murdered by his friend in April this year but his murderer was released from prison by the end of May this year.
“I then told my friend (in Botswana) that the death sentence still exists in our legal system but the courts are hesitant to use it. The last person to be hanged is the killer of Tšepo Tšola’s wife more than ten years ago. But nowadays people who kill others, like my brother’s killer, have a right to and apply for bail, get released and live their lives while the case lingers without being spoken to finality in court,†he said.
The General Secretary of the party, TÅ¡itso Cheba cemented the words of the former premier citing the immoral and organised killings perpetuated even against members of the Lesotho Mounted Police Service (LMPS) and the public at large, which must be brought to an abrupt halt by unhanging the death penalty sentence.
It is roughly 10 police officers wh0 were brutally killed last month, while over 100 people have been killed in the hands of police in less than five years.
Some of the killings are said to be perpetuated by the blanket gangsters which have already spilled into politics.
Mosisili and his fellow party stalwarts believe that it would be in the best interests of the country to ensure that the rampant murders are nipped in the bud, saying that in re-implementing the death penalty courts shall ensure that all the necessary investigations have been completed and that the guilty murderers are the ones who get the noose and not anyone else erroneously.
