27/12/2025
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I have today come to appreciate just how terrified Basotho are of ๐๐ข๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฐ, so terrified that almost anything is acceptable, provided it promises to eliminate ๐๐ข๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฐ.
This realisation followed the much-anticipated โexplanationโ by the coordinator of Lesotho Defence Force - Youth Development Programme (boot camp), Lieutenant Colonel Bokang Melato, regarding allegations of sexual harassment at an LDF-organised boot camp in Mafeteng.
In what must rank among the most inspired public relations decisions of the year, the LDF chose a fun walk in Mafeteng as the venue to address allegations of sexual misconduct involving minors. After all, nothing reassures anxious parents quite like jogging past the truth.
Melato addressed a visibly exhausted group of parents, perhaps deliberately so. Who knows if it's a boot camp technique, โhave them run first, then when they're tired tell them a lot of nothing.โ
He began by assuring them that the alleged incident was first and foremost an isolated one. Comforting words, routinely deployed just before evidence suggests otherwise.
Once everyone was sufficiently tired and confused, Melato narrated what he described as the โtrueโ account.
He criticized those who reported the matter on social media, accusing them of misrepresenting facts by daring to call sexual harassment exactly that, ๐ฌ๐๐ฑ๐ฎ๐๐ฅ ๐ก๐๐ซ๐๐ฌ๐ฌ๐ฆ๐๐ง๐ญ.
There was, he said, a soldier entrusted with the care of ailing boot campers. His duties included being alone with them in an ambulance during transportation. One such boot camper, a minor and therefore already vulnerable, fell ill during training and had to be transported from Mafeteng to Makoanyane.
Somewhere along the way, perhaps as part of an unrecognised medical procedure, the caregiver soldier allegedly uttered sexually suggestive remarks to the poor girl.
Interestingly, Melato added, the soldierโs colleagues could hear the exchange but thought it โwasnโt something serious.โ A fascinating insight into military thresholds for concern.
Later, the same soldier allegedly repeated the utterances, again within earshot of his colleagues. They did absolutely nothing. They could not take a stand and say 'not in our name'.
Their obliviousness says a lot about their tolerance of sexual harrassment which begs a question, was this really the first and isolated incident? Why couldn't their conscious border them?
The matter remained under wraps until the child, carrying a burden far heavier than her age should allow, reported it to an instructor. The report was allegedly escalated but to nowhere, as nothing, absolutely nothing was done with the suspect.
As if this were not alarming enough, another female minor later fell ill. In a remarkable display of confidence, the same soldier, already linked to earlier allegations and displaying every warning sign one would hope triggers safeguards, was again assigned to be alone with a vulnerable girl child in an ambulance.
According to Melato, while attending to the girl, the soldier instructed her to tie her shoelaces. In the process, โhe accidentally kissed her,โ Melato said with a straight face, before a packed crowd of what can only be described as astonishingly trusting parents.
One must admire the linguistic gymnastics. With one side of his mouth, Melato declared the matter serious. With the other, he dismissed it as a social-media misunderstanding. It was not sexual harassment, just an unfortunate coincidence involving a child, an ambulance, and a man already under suspicion.
This explanation alone should disqualify anyone from overseeing a programme involving children.
The LDF commander, Lieutenant General Mojalefa Letsoela, then stepped forward and promised that the suspect would be dismissed from the army, a bold statement, bravely delivered after the damage was done. What he did not explain was more revealing, which systems failed? What child-protection policies exist and how the army plans to ensure the next โrotten potatoโ is not issued an ambulance and a minor?
More curiously, no mention was made of disciplinary action against officers who allegedly heard, witnessed and ignored the soldierโs conduct.
One is left to wonder whether the army recognises errors of omission, or whether misconduct only counts when committed loudly and alone.
As for the parents who, after all this, choose to leave their daughters in Mafeteng, history will not be kind. When the next โaccidentโ occurs, they will be forced to explain how they were reassured by a fun walk, a straight face, and an institution more concerned with optics than their safety.
