THE Independent Electoral Commission (IEC)'s Director of Elections, Mpaiphele Maqutu, says the government's attempts to move the National Security Service (NSS) into the same building the electoral body occupies is a vainglorious infringement of its autonomy.
The IEC moved into a new building - christened IEC House - in March 2024 after vacating Prime Minister Sam Matekane's MGC Park after an outcry that its continued renting of the PM's premises after he had ventured into full time politics created a serious conflict of interest situation.
But fresh controversy has followed the IEC to its new five storied home.
The government wants a section of the NSS housed in the building for "security reasons".
The government regards the new IEC House as a "security threat" since it is located close to the State House, the office and official residence of Mr Matekane. The building is the tallest in the area and towers over State House, a national key point.
The government wants the IEC to occupy the first three floors while it takes over the fourth and fifth floors which provide a bird's eye view over State House.
But according to Adv Maqutu, the government's decision contravenes provisions of the Second Amendment to the Constitution Act N0. 7, 1997, which guarantees the IEC's independence.
He told the Lesotho Times in a recent interview that housing the NSS in the same building as the IEC would compromise the electoral body's operations.
This because the NSS is a spy agency controlled by politicians, whose governments are borne out of elections organised by the same IEC, an "electoral midwife".
The IEC House formerly owned by Homestead Holdings, was apparently sold to the government in March this year, using M77 million of the M80 million, that remained from funds allocated to the IEC for the September 2023 local government elections.
While the IEC insists the building belongs to it, as it was bought with its money, Minister of Justice and Law, Richard Ramoeletsi, whose ministry oversees the electoral commission, tells a different story.
He recently told the Lesotho Times that although he could not deny that the building was bought with IEC funds, the transaction was done on the government's behalf.
He added that the office of the Commissioner of lands was already preparing change of ownership documents from Homestead Holdings to the government of Lesotho.
He said the IEC had only been allowed to use the building temporarily while the government prepared to acquire a permanent home for the electoral body.
Mr Ramoeltsi insisted that due to an "agreement" between the government and IEC commissioners comprising of chairperson Mphasa Mokhochane and his colleagues Ts'oeu Petlane and Karabo Mokobocho, the fourth floor should be used to accommodate the NSS, leaving the uppermost fifth vacant for security reasons.
Adv Maqutu vigorously rejects the minister's assertions nonetheless.
Minister Ramoeletsi insists there is indeed such a deal because the luxurious building is a "threat to the security of the State House and its primary occupant, Premier Matekane".
It compromised the premier's security because it towered over the State House, he said.
The building could be easily used as a platform to pry into the premier's movements, Mr Ramoeletsi said.
As such, it was imperative to move a section of the NSS into the fourth floor of the building, to provide round-the-clock security for State House while barricading the fifth and keeping it empty.
Minister Ramoeletsi described the building as being unacceptable for non-state use by virtue of the threat it "poses to the prime minister". The government could not let it be run unchecked and unmonitored.
IEC's version
Adv Maqutu however narrates a different story. He says shortly after moving into the building in March 2024, they had indeed been approached by the government which informed them that the building posed a threat to the premier. It was therefore necessary to move the NSS to the fourth floor of the building. They had however rejected the proposal.
Adv Maqutu asserted it was "not possible to house IEC with another institution that takes direct mandate from the government of the day."
"Yes, the government did approach us to say that that this building is a security threat to the State House. Last week, Minister Ramoeletsi told the chairman of the IEC that we should reserve the fourth floor for his people of security to occupy," Adv Maqutu said.
"But you can't allow someone who is not IEC to operate from IEC premises. You just can't do that. We were accused when we were at MGC, that the owner of the building held the master key to our servers and could change the voters' roll anytime. Thereafter, some people did not appreciate the results of the 2022 elections because of that...
"Now they want to introduce agencies that are controlled by the executive, which is the government of the day to operate from our building. We cannot allow that. It keeps us in the same position that we thought we had moved away from by vacating MGC Park"
Adv Maqutu said it defied logic why the minister was fighting the IEC, when on January 8 this year, Mr Ramoeletsi had given the electoral commission the green light to move into the new building.
"When we called a meeting with political leaders on the 8th of January 2024, the Minister of Justice and Law said there was no problem, we can occupy the building," Adv Maqutu said.
"This is because the government had initially raised certain issues when we wanted to purchase the building, such as that the building is a security threat to the residence of the Prime Minister.
"But we deliver governments, we are the electoral midwives to the formation of any government. How can we become a threat to the government whose election we oversee? When the owner of this building was being told not to sell it to us after our agreement with him, it was said that the third and fourth floor should be barred with steel so that we could not see through them."
That was all problematic but issues appear to have been resolved when the IEC took occupancy. The fight continues.
Independence
Minister Ramoeletsi rejected Adv Maqutu's charge that the executive was trying to tamper with the IEC's independence. It was merely performing its duty to protect Mr Matekane.
When one looked at the State House from the 5th Floor of the building, they could see all movements and activities at the PM's official residence, the minister said.
"Having some members of the intelligence agency occupying the fourth floor of the building, will provide security to the Prime Minister. Not that the IEC poses a threat, but having a building of that magnitude so close to State House does pose a threat," Mr Ramoeletsi said.
The building was also not big enough for the IEC to execute its mandate efficiently, he said.
"They need a bigger building which we will build for them. Also, that building is not adequate for the IEC's use. Even if they take the fourth floor, the space cannot accommodate all their activities," he said.
"Hence we are saying it is for temporary occupation until we have built them offices of their own.....
"We agreed with them from the beginning of our negotiations that they should not touch the fourth floor and we agreed. That was until they moved in and realised that they needed the fourth floor. Even if they have the fourth floor, the building is still inadequate to allow the IEC to execute their mandate."
Ownership
While Adv Maqutu steadfastly disputes the minister's whole version, things get even murkier over who really owns the building.
Adv Maqutu, who is essentially the IEC's CEO, further contradicts Mr Ramoeletsi's assertion, that while the IEC currently uses the building, it in fact belongs to the government after it was purchased by the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning.
Adv Maqutu insists the building was bought with M77 million that remained in the IEC account at the end of the 2023-24 fiscal period. The government was therefore only trying to bully them over their own building, he asserts.
Mr Ramoeletsi on the other hand insists the IEC funds bought the building on behalf of government. The funds ought to have gone back into the consolidated revenue fund at the end of the 2023-24 financial period.
"IEC submits the budget every year and it is given money to operate like all government ministries and departments. When the year ends, and the money allocated to IEC is not used, it is returned to the consolidated fund," he said.
"IEC was allocated money to run the elections, it did and had change of M80 million. Then they asked to use that money to purchase a building or build one of their own.
"In the process, there was this building in Maseru West which was almost ready. Then we told them we will purchase the building for them for use but it will belong to us. Finish and klaar ."
"At the time, the money that was readily available was held in an IEC account. Because of time constraints and the fact that we were about to close the financial year we gave them the go ahead to pay for the building directly, using funds in their account, before the money could be poured back into the government's coffers. That's why the receipt shows that IEC paid. But that does not make it their building.
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"All the other documents indicate that the building belongs to the government."
To buttress his point, Mr Ramoeletsi showed the Lesotho Times communication from the Lands Commissioner in which the later partly states: "We are in the process of declaring the plot for public purposes (sic), by this, we transfer the rights from the previous owner (Homestead Holdings) to the government."
Mr Ramoeletsi continued: "The IEC paid, yes. Homestead Holdings is supposed to pay a stamp duty (a tax that a government levies on documents required to legally record certain types of transactions) so that the property is transferred to the ownership of the government. It is a process and takes time," Mr Ramoeletsi said.
Controversy
This all means the controversy between the current IEC, which has not been shy of fighting to safeguard its independence, and Mr Matekane's government is intensifying.
All and sundry believed the brawl had been settled with the IEC's decision to vacate the MGC Park after a decade of occupancy. That is certainly not the case.
Initially, it was Minister of Local Government, Chieftainship, Home Affairs and Police Lebona Lephema, who fought tooth and nail to barricade the IEC's move to the new space, even ordering Homestead Holdings, the building's developer, to neither sell nor rent it to the IEC to allegedly protect the minister's unclear vested interests.
But time was ticking, and the IEC needed to move swiftly from MGC Park, given the pressure that had mounted on it from different opposition political parties dissatisfied with the electoral body's occupancy of an office owned by a political rival.
Any subsequent elections organised by the IEC from MGC Park would be illegitimate, the opposition had argued.
After the move, controversy has still followed the IEC into what should have been its new comfortable home to enable it to focus on its important work.
