COLETU Press Release, 30 June 2015 Memorial Service for Lieutenant General Maaparankoe Mahao The Congress of Lesotho Trade Unions (COLETU) is organising a Memorial Service for the assassinated Lieutenant General Maaparankoe Mahao which will be held on the 2nd July 2015. Lieutenant General Maaparankoe Mahao was assassinated on the 25th June 2015 while from farming in his home village Mokema. We know that Lieutenant General Maaparankoe Mahao was fired as a Commander of Lesotho Defence Force (LDF) by the Government of Lesotho which accused him for inciting LDF members to mutiny, which was a death sentence in our view. Despite the fact that Lieutenant General Maaparankoe was abandoned by his own Government, we cannot do so for the sake of humanity. Who is Lieutenant General Maaparankoe? The first time I knew Maaparankoe Mahao was in 1990. Then he was a student of law at the National University of Lesotho (NUL) and was a member of the Committee for Action and Solidarity for Southern African Students (CASSAS) which was providing solidarity to Southern African Liberation Movements, namely the South Western African Peoples Organisation (SWAPO) from Namibia, Zimbabwe African Peoples' Union (ZAPU) from Zimbabwe and the African National Congress (ANC) from South Africa. As a member of the Student Representative Council (SRC) particularly after the 1986 Coup in Lesotho, Mahao used to avail University accommodation to the underground members of Umkhonto We Sizwe (MK) during his student days on behalf of or operating under the instructions of the Communist Party of Lesotho (CPL). Operating with MK influenced Lieutenant General Maaparankoe Mahao to join the LDF. In 1990, when Lesotho Teachers Trade Union (LTTU) of which I am its General Secretary organised a wage strike against the then ruling Military Government, Maaparankoe Mahao organised NUL students to give teachers solidarity through demonstration. Maaparankoe Mahao urged teachers to couple their wage demand with the Military. We will always remember him for fighting for the democratisation of Lesotho. A democrat bone and marrow, when the LDF split in 1994 and climbed the city mountains and started firing at each other, Maaparankoe Mahao organised a demonstration that was calling for a truce in the LDF factions. He further participated in 1994 stay-at-home campaign when King Letsie III staged a Coup. Let us remember him for dedicating his life for building strong Trade Unions from 1990 - 1994 as he recruited new University leavers in the School of Education of the NUL to join LTTU. During the 1995 teachers' strike, which was the biggest in Lesotho to be organised by LTTU, Maaparankoe Mahao was our legal advisor until he left legal practice in 1996 and joined the LDF. In 1998, Brigadier Maaparankoe Mahao resisted a Coup organised by his colleagues in the LDF. Comrades, let us make a big memorial service to celebrate the Life of Lieutenant General Maaparankoe Mahao, promoted to this rank in 2014. He was a true democrat, visionary and revolutionary. The Memorial Service will be held as follows: . Date: 2 July 2015 (Thursday) . Time: T. B. A. . Venue: T. B. A. Contact: Vuyani Tyhali, General Secretary, Lesotho Teachers Trade Union, +266 58720692 Congress of Lesotho Trade Unions [email protected] -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
