AllAfrica editor's note: Famo is a Sesotho music genre of melodies created and sung with accordion. It has been famous in Lesotho and South Africa for years. Rivalry between Basotho fans of the genre has fuelled years of deadly gang warfare.
THE government has been criticized for not doing enough to address increasing famo related murders across the country.
The recent outlawing of famo groups was not enough to end their reign of terror across the country.
Instead, the chairperson of the Social Cluster Portfolio Committee, Mokhothu Makhalanyane, who is also the ruling Revolution For Prosperity (RFP) legislator for Mokhethoaneng constituency, has echoed calls by deputy army commander, Matela Matobakele, for a state of emergency to end crimes by the famo gangs.
Mr Makhalanyane told the Lesotho Times this week that a state of emergency could be the required solution to empower law enforcement agencies to sweep out the famo gangs.
He said the gazette which was issued by the Minister of Local Government, Chieftainship, Home Affairs and Police, Lebona Lephema, on 10 May 2024, banning the famo gangs was not enough to rein them in.
Mr Makhalanyane encouraged the government to declare a state of emergency for a designated period to enable law enforcement agencies to focus on rooting out the famo gangs.
Such a declaration would give security agencies powers and time to raid places and root out the famo gangs.
"Without the declaration, I do not see us achieving anything. I am not happy with the way the government is addressing this issue and I think it will take time for us to see any impact," Mr Makhalanyane said.
"A week after the legal notice criminalising famo gangs was released, people were killed at different places. I do not see this as an effective measure. A state of emergency needs to be declared so that investigations are done to establish what is actually happening with famo gangs and where they get the power to kill people without fear.
"We need to find where their intelligence comes from enabling them to plan and direct others to kill people from afar."
Democratic Congress (DC) deputy leader and former Home Affairs Minister, Motlalentoa Letsosa, said the government was now overwhelmed by rising murder cases.
He suggested calling the famo gang leaders for negotiations as was done in 2016 when the DC was still in power to help them end their feuds. While that initiative did not fully eradicate the killings, it decreased them commendably, Mr Letsosa claimed.
He said it was unfortunate that the current coalition government "did not take advice" but wanted to do things its own way.
He said the military and police raid in one of the famo leaders' village of Liphakoeng in Leribe in April had not produced results. Days after the raid, people were killed in high numbers in the same area.
"What the government can do is start a campaign and target the famo leaders, call them for talks in order to understand the causes of their feuds so they can address them effectively.
"Issues like this do not need the use of power and force. These people need to be approached in a calm and respectable way in order for them to listen.
"Negotiations can bring an end to the killings or at least ensure that they get reduced. Beating them and using force would not help in any way because after killing people, gang members run away fully aware that the police will raid their community, only for them to return the next day and continue with the killings," he said.
He said the National Security Service (NSS) ought to be questioned whether it was doing its work properly.
"Do you tell me that the NSS does not know anything about these ever-increasing murder incidents? If they do, we need to find out what they are doing with the information... Where was it reported and what action was taken? In doing so we will then know who is sleeping on the job," he said.
He said criminalising famo gangs might have made it more difficult for members of the famo gangs to freely come to the table for fear of being arrested.
However, government spokesperson, Thabo Sekonyela, rejected the advice. He said the government was doing its best to address murders by famo gangs.
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He said DC officials were quick to judge the current coalition while they failed to address the issue themselves.
Mr Sekonyela said in 2016, the then government led by the DC and other six political parties, formed a task team to investigate matters surrounding murders by famo gangs but failed to combat the issue.
Mr Sekonyela said the task team had failed to submit any report regarding the task it had been given.
Mr Letsosa was part of that task team. He insisted progress had in fact been made by the task team and the famo-related killings got reduced after they sat down with members of the gangs and negotiated peace among them.
He said the progress was however affected by change of regime in 2017. The All Basotho Convention (ABC) led government that came into power then had failed to keep the momentum and the peace between the famo groups subsequently collapsed.
