How rival zama zamas, rogue soldiers, cops and Lesotho's political parties work 'in cahoots'

Basotho “zama zamas” gangs, flush in cash, whose members are allegedly behind the Soweto tavern massacre and Krugersdorp mass rape, are working hand-in-glove with Lesotho's political parties, helping them secure thousands of voters from SA ahead of the mountain kingdom's hotly contested October election.

Video evidence obtained by TimesLIVE Investigations shows SA's most sought-after zama zamas, Sarel Sello and Tshepho Elliot Radebe, handing out wads of cash at an All Basotho Convention (ABC) rally on June 19.

The two are wanted for the Mdlalose tavern massacre which occurred three weeks later on July 10.

Sello and Radebe are the de facto leaders of the Terene ea Khosi Mokata (Mokata's Train). Their arch rivals are the Terene ea Chakela (Chakela's Train).

Sixteen people, including Chakela member Tshepo Koepe, were shot dead and seven seriously injured in the massacre. Koepe was allegedly hunted down to the tavern.

While the exact source of the money handed out by Sello and Radebe is unknown, Lesotho's national police commissioner, Holomo Molibeli, in an exclusive interview, has questioned their actions.

Molibeli alleges profits from the sale of gold illegally mined in SA is used by zama zamas to buy protection from investigations and prosecutions.

He said this is believed to happen in exchange for zama zama gangs’ recruiting supporters for Lesotho’s ruling ABC and the opposition Democratic Congress (DC).

Molibeli said zama zama leaders frequently gathered with politicians at political rallies and handed out vast sums of cash.

“One would think explanations of the source of the money would be provided by these groups or the politicians, but the silence is deafening. It is clear there are direct links and arrangements of convenience between the politicians and zama zamas.”

Both the ABC and DC deny they are funded by Terene ea Chakela and Terene ea Mokata, though they admit they use the groups to fund their social programmes, such as the building of schools, homes and supply of food parcels to the indigent.

A month-long investigation by TimesLIVE, which includes extensive interviews with Lesotho and SA security services sources, reveal that as well as alleged protection from investigation and prosecution, both Terene groups receive high-powered military grade firearms stolen from state armouries by corrupt Lesotho Defence Force (LDF) and Lesotho Mounted Police Service (LMPS) members.

The weapons are used by the warring groups in their clashes with each other as they carve up the gold reef which stretches across the Free State, Gauteng, North West and Mpumalanga.

Rogue LDF and LMPS personnel have also joined the gangs, allegedly operating as hit squads carrying out assassinations in SA.

The war between the groups, many of whose leaders are famed Famo music artists, entered centre stage after the Mdlalose’s Tavern massacre.

No arrests have been made, but Gauteng-based police reportedly attempted to nab Terene ea Mokata members, including Sello and Radebe, in a botched clandestine operation on the border of Maseru Bridge last month. SA police say Sello and Radebe are wanted for the Soweto tavern massacre.

Molibeli described the influence of the gangs as a national crisis for Lesotho and SA.

“The problem is they [the Chakela and Mokata gangs] cannot be dealt with because of the political protection they have. You take them on and you take on the government. These gangs have huge political support, especially from the upper echelons of [the Lesotho] government.”

These gangs have huge political support ... It is clear there are direct links and arrangements of convenience between the politicians and zama zamas.

—  Lesotho Mounted Police Service (LMPS) commissioner Holomo Molibeli

On August 4 the country’s prime minister, Dr Moeketsi Majoro, said some officials within the country’s security agencies were involved in aiding and abetting criminality. 

“And within those groups there are members of the security agencies who have turned themselves into moles [working for these groups] and have become part of these groups, and they work together to ensure they succeed in their deeds and make sure that when these criminals are arrested, these members assist these groups to be released from jail or to be granted bail speedily,” he said in Maseru after the Krugersdorp mass rapes.

The two Terene gangs, which are officially registered as burial and financial and legal support societies, have a combined membership of more than 100,000 people, the majority of whom are illegal miners. Other members include domestic workers, security guards, gardeners, taxi drivers and informal traders.

In August, ABC leader Nkaku Kabi visited Terene ea Mokata’s SA stronghold in Klerksdorp and praised the now-wanted Sello for recruiting 46,000 new members to join ABC ahead of the elections, describing the faction as “a government on its own”.

Montoeli Masoetsa, ABC’s spokesperson, confirmed it had links with Terene ea Mokata, but denied it funded the party.

“Indeed [we are affiliated] and it’s an old affiliation. It started with Rethabile ‘Mosotho Chakela’ Mokete and former prime minister Tom Thabane. So Chakela’s people became ABC supporters.” 

There are members of the security agencies who have turned themselves into moles ...  these members assist these groups to be released from jail or to be granted bail speedily.

—  Dr Moeketsi Majoro, Lesotho prime minister 

While Masoetsa said the party did not receive donations from the group, he admitted it helped the party with financing its social-outreach programmes.

“They have their own money. We asked them to help us and the communities of Lesotho. We asked them to take on a social responsibility [role] because of the Famo wars that led to many deaths and many breadwinners [being] killed. They are building houses and giving back to the community in the name of ABC. That is what they do.”

Tshepo Moshoeshoe, Terene ea Mokata’s secretary-general, denied they were involved in illegal mining.

We have between 800,000 and 900,000 members consisting of miners, security guards, garden and domestic workers, and informal traders in SA and Lesotho. Our members pay a once-off signing on fee of R100 and a monthly subscription fee of R150.

—  Tshepo Moshoeshoe, Terene ea Mokata’s secretary-general

“We have between 800,000 and 900,000 members consisting of miners, security guards, garden and domestic workers, and informal traders in SA and Lesotho,” he said.

“Our members pay a one-off signing-on fee of R100 and a monthly subscription fee of R150. That money goes towards burials, helping our members during difficult times and paying lawyers if they are in trouble.

“We do not get our money from illegal mining.” 

DC spokesperson Serialong Qoo confirmed his party was aligned to Terene Chakela.

“Actually, those people [Chakela] are doing zama zama there [in SA]. They are Basotho. They are born in Lesotho. Because there is a lack of jobs here in Lesotho, that’s why they came to SA to do that zama zama.”

He said Lesotho’s political parties attempted to dissuade the Famo groups from engaging in illegal mining in SA.

“We tried to discuss with them that whatever they are doing, they can do the proper things, just to guide them so they can’t damage the image of their country in SA,” said Qoo.

He said the DC did not offer anything in return for the gang’s support and the party did not get anything in return save support.

“They never gave our party money. Not a single cent. We want clean money, we want it so that when we use our money no negative news can follow us. We cannot take money from zama zamas who do illegal mining.”

Molibeli, however, paints a different picture, suggesting the groups’ influence in Lesotho’s politics and upcoming elections was being downplayed by political parties which are direct beneficiaries of their “social outreach projects”.

He said three weeks ago they received information that a group of Terene members was gathering at a guesthouse near an ABC rally outside Maseru.

“We received intelligence that the Terene members had illegal weapons. We raided the guest house and found them with a soldier, with dozens of LDF and LMPS weapons, and rounds of ammunition. We arrested them, but the next day they were all released on a R500 fine each.”

According to Molibeli, the 2017 murder of Lipolelo Thabane, estranged wife of then Lesotho prime minister Tom Thabane, was carried out by one of these gangs.

“We had 39 witnesses against those involved, some of whom fled to SA, yet the charges were dropped. You need to look at the judges and the prosecutors who are also in their pockets. If you try to arrest them and bring them to court ... you do it at great risk to yourself,” he said.

“These gangsters work for [the] government. They are in every sphere of government. There are Terene members who are drivers for our government ministers. They and politicians in our country go hand-in-glove.”

Molibeli said while the LDF provided VIP protection to ministers and some government officials, and police were responsible for policing Lesotho, politicians openly used zama zamas for protection.

“One would think the police would also be responsible for securing politicians in Lesotho, but that responsibility lies with the zama zamas.”

Molibeli said the theft of weapons from the LDF and LMPS was a huge issue, with many ending up in the hands of zama zamas in SA, where they were used to wage war.

“With the assistance of the SAPS we went there [to SA] recently. In Springs, during a raid on a shack occupied by a Basotho nationals, Lesotho government security force firearms were recovered.

“These were high-calibre firearms which had been stolen or gone ‘missing’ from some of our LMPS armoury in Mafeteng.”

Police and military members were operating closely with the zama zama gangs, he said.

“They have committed violent crimes in SA. I recently disbanded a police unit responsible for combating armed robberies. I did this because some members were co-operating with the zama zamas. It is known that some of our members have been supplying these gangsters with firearms.”

In November 2021 The Lesotho Times reported the LMPS’s armoury in Mafeteng was burgled and 75 high-calibre firearms stolen.

In June LDF commander Lt-Gen Mojalefa Letsoela condemned the defection of two army personnel to Terene ea Mokata in Klerksdorp. He acknowledged criminal syndicates had infiltrated their ranks. 

“There are gangs which operate in Lesotho and SA which are known to carry large sums of money — blood money — in wheelbarrows. Now these groups have infiltrated your ranks, from officers to foot soldiers ... I want to pronounce the two persons from the foot protection unit. I am declaring the pair deserters. They joined those groups in SA,” he told troops. 

LDF spokesperson Capt Sakeng Lekola confirmed to TimesLIVE Investigations that the pair was apprehended and held in a military prison.

Asked whether LDF was aware of the members' activities in SA, Lekola said: “Not at all. We do not know which group they joined [while in SA].”

TimesLIVE Investigations has established that the two joined Terene ea Mokata. In May,  Terene ea Chakela leader Sekola “Lelimo” Letsatsi was assassinated in Germiston. Gauteng police spokesperson Lt-Col Mavela Masondo confirmed a murder case was being investigated but said no arrests had been made.

Officers from an SAPS illegal mining task team in Klerksdorp, an illegal mining hotspot in SA, told TimesLIVE Investigations last week they had recovered numerous Israeli Galil assault rifles, used by the LMPS and LDF.

Social media videos obtained by TimesLIVE Investigations show heavily armed gangs, including soldiers, who have seized control of mineshafts in Springs, Welkom, Klerksdorp, Stilfontein, Benoni and Johannesburg, singing inside shafts while carrying alleged LDF and LMPS firearms.

“An all-out war is being waged on the gold reef. In October 2021, following a gun battle with zama zamas in neighbouring Orkney where six people were killed, we found a Galil rifle with its LMP armoury rack number still etched on it,” said an officer who asked not to be named.

A senior Lesotho state security source said zama zama gangs had been left by SA authorities to their own devices, with the country’s law-enforcement agencies “lacking oomph” in rooting out zama zamas.

* Terene ea Mokata’s SA fortress is in Klerksdorp, where it has thousands of members working abandoned mines.

* According to police, they extract between R20m and R40m in gold per shaft every two weeks.

* The Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) is investigating police from Klerksdorp who allegedly robbed zama zamas of R15m in gold-bearing ore and cash in August. 

* Terene ea Chakela controls, with several splinter groups, mineshafts along Gauteng’s East Rand and West Rand, where it apparently extracts between R5m and R10m in gold every two weeks.

* According to the latest auditor-general’s report, there are 6,100 derelict and ownerless mines in SA.

—  Zama zamas in a nutshell

“The police that side [SA] do not want to deal with this issue [illegal mining] by going to the abandoned mines and effecting serious operations,” said the source, who is not authorised to speak to the media and asked not to be named.

He said the Famo music groups had over the past decade evolved from being simple music groups into criminal syndicates operating between the neighbouring countries. 

“Musicians vie for power through proximity with politicians. The relationship between political parties and these gangs is beneficial to both. The gangs know they have a massive following. They throw their support behind political parties to get into office. That’s how the parties benefit.

“The gangs benefit through protection from prosecution. We cannot arrest or prosecute them because they have senior political officials who intervene. Their main benefit is to be protected from the law.”

Wits professor David Coplan, who has studied Basotho migration and the mining industry in SA, said: “These gangs are heavily politically connected. They have a symbiotic relationship with politicians, who use and benefit from them too.

“The gangs benefit through the politicians by using them to launder their cash through government tenders, while the politicians gain from them by gaining cash, voters and through the assassination and disruption of political opponents.”

TimesLIVE Investigations approached the offices of the Gauteng and national Hawks, who are responsible for illegal mining investigations, with detailed questions, but they declined to comment.