Govt bans of­fen­sive famo songs

Lesotho Times - - News - Billy Ntaote

Po­lice and Pub­lic Safety Min­is­ter Monyane Moleleki yes­ter­day an­nounced a ban on famo songs that incite vi­o­lence among fans.

Mr Moleleki’s state­ment came a day af­ter Tourism, en­vi­ron­ment and cul­ture Min­is­ter, likeleli Tam­pane, said gov­ern­ment was look­ing at ways to curb famo-re­lated vi­o­lence spear­headed by Mafetenglinked gangs by the names Terene and Seakhi.

“We are go­ing to be adopt­ing a num­ber of mea­sures to curb th­ese famo gang wars. And key to this is mak­ing sure ra­dio sta­tions, mini- buses and taxis stop play­ing famo songs with lyrics which incite ha­tred and vi­o­lence,” said Mr Moleleki at a press con­fer­ence held in Maseru. Last week, five peo­ple were shot dead in Maseru in sus­pected famo-re­lated vi­o­lence, which Mr Moleleki strongly con­demned. The killings ap­pear to be the rea­son gov­ern­ment has de­cided to do some­thing about the sense­less vi­o­lence.

Mr Moleleki also said he would be lead­ing a com­mit­tee com­pris­ing en­ergy Min­is­ter Selibe Mochoboroane, Hu­man Rights, law and con­sti­tu­tional Af­fairs Min­is­ter Mot­la­len­toa let­sosa, communications Min­is­ter Khotso let­satsi, Tourism Min­is­ter likeleli Tam­pane and Home Af­fairs Deputy Min­is­ter Phal­lang Monare, that has been tasked with find­ing last­ing so­lu­tions to the famo turf war.

“We are tak­ing this ini­tia­tive, as gov­ern­ment, be­cause we are con­cerned by th­ese in­ces­sant at­tacks of one Mosotho child by an­other.

“it has come to our at­ten­tion that since the killing of a man from Maboloka in Jan­uary 2014, there have been more famo-re­lated killings in le­sotho and out­side the coun­try,” said Mr Moleleki.

The min­is­te­rial com­mit­tee, he added, had al­ready started its work and would be sup­ported by the po- lice.

“The first step is safe­guard­ing the safety of the gen­eral pop­u­la­tion. The po­lice have also in­creased night pa­trols in Maseru to en­sure the safety of the pub­lic. Se­condly, we are urg­ing peo­ple to stop play­ing th­ese songs that incite vi­o­lence.

“We are also go­ing to be work­ing on en­sur­ing any famo vi­o­lencere­lated cases are heard speed­ily by the courts. We would also be go­ing on tours across the coun­try to meet fam­i­lies af­fected by this vi­o­lence and also ad­dress vil­lagers on this is­sue,” said Mr Moleleki.

The min­is­ter also urged any­one with in­for­ma­tion that could help

the po­lice ar­rest sus­pects in the famo killings, to come for­ward.

Deputy com­mis­sioner of Po­lice Ma­supha Ma­supha, who at­tended yes­ter­day’s press brief­ing, also warned res­i­dents against har­bour­ing sus­pects of such killings.

Ac­cord­ing to DCP Ma­supha, pro­tect­ing sus­pects is a crime and any­one found to have done so would be pros­e­cuted.

Se­nior As­sis­tant com­mis­sioner Mpota Nthako, also told yes­ter­day’s me­dia brief­ing that famo-re­lated deaths de­clined in 2011, 2012 and 2013 due to gov­ern­ment ef­forts to end the vi­o­lence.

“But it seems the killings mostly af­fect peo­ple from Ter­ateng, Maboloka, Tha­bana-morena and Matelile (in Mafeteng).

“Mafeteng courts have since in­creased fines to dis­cour­age this kind of vi­o­lence,” he added.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Lesotho

© PressReader. All rights reserved.