Colonel Mothae- the no nonsense soldier

Retired Colonel Tanki Josias Mothae- a national of Lesotho-whose contract at SADC Secretariat in Gaborone ends this week was no doubt a breed cut for that position.

He holds a Master’s Degree in Public Administration, postgraduate diploma in Administrative Studies from University of Liverpool and Diploma in Public Administration and Management from Lesotho Institute of Public Administration and Management (LIPAM).

Mothae is one bloke whose conduct is a refutation of the perception that military people are incapable of transforming into loyal servants under civilian rule.He proved this when he retired from Lesotho Defence Force (LDF), which has a penchant for harassing democratically elected leaders in their own country and joined the Southern African Development Community (SADC) as its first Director of the Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Affairs. The Organ is charged with the promotion of peace and security in the region. He has been at SADC headquarters in Gaborone since November 2006.

Eight years later, Mothae departs a very proud man because a product he carried from its infancy, led then by an acting director, has earned the regional bloc global accolades. SADC is currently regarded the best performing region in terms of peace and security in the entire African continent. The Organ’s vision emanates from the African Union (AU) recommendation that all its five regions must have Standby Forces in preparation for Peace Keeping Missions in their respective regions and the Continent at large. Mothae’s team started their mission with a shoestring budget but ensured proper cost effective use of resources. Mothae had to start from scratch. His encouragement came from the great leadership and support he received from the then SADC Executive Secretary Tomaz Salomao.

Today he can proudly say he has accomplished his mission of turning the Organ into a fully-fledged unit of the bloc. Among its mandate, the team managed to develop and establish the regional peacekeeping capability; prevention of trafficking in drugs and human tissue; schemes for the prevention of terrorism and mercenarism; prevention mechanism of proliferation of small arms and light weapons in the region; identified key intervention areas and targets; designed and implemented medium term and annual business plans, conducted regular monitoring and evaluation of plans, prepared quarterly and annual plans of action for the Directorate, co-ordinated political, defence and security issues in liaison with the Office of the Chairperson of the Organ, the Troika and Member States, as well as made policies and programmes.

Other achievements are evaluating relevant international developments with a view to determining their impact on the region and propose appropriate SADC policies and strategies; processing for the implementation of the SADC Protocol on politics, defence and security and the Strategic Indicative Plan for the Organ (SIPO). What would have been Mothae’s celebration has been spoiled by the fact that his own people in former army mates at LDF, together with soldiers of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have often been stumbling blocks distracting peace and stability in their respective countries. When he first arrived in office he faced a baptism of fire when he had to intervene in the disputed elections of his own country, which were won by Prime Minister Professor Pakalitha Mosisili. SADC appointed former President Sir Ketumile as mediator. Mothae was very inexperienced during the Lesotho crisis meetings, but had to soldier on. He appreciated the efforts and manner in which Ambassador Mrango who was the Organ focal point, based in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs took him through the tough times. “But because of the support I managed to navigate.” He says Member States were also supportive in his role as coordinator of the Organ.

“When I took over there was no substantive officer save for my secretary Lillian Madibana who guided me on a number of issues as well as a gentleman called Colonel Gerison Sangiza.” SADC countries also helped the Organ to grow. Within a short time a number of Police, Military and public officers were seconded from member states to the SADC Standby Force. Operating with a skeletal staff, Mothae found his problems increasing on a daily basis, on his desk there was a guiding document called -Strategic Indicative Plan for the Organ (SIPO). But, it was shallow and needed to be revised. The SIPO is divided into five main sectors being political, defence, state security, public security and police. The SIPO review was undertaken in response to, amongst others, the changing geopolitical environment, weaknesses in the first edition of the SIPO document to adequately respond to evolving challenges, inadequate provision for the coordinated monitoring and evaluation of the implementation process of the SIPO and lack of coordination in the implementation of issues that cut across sectors. As if that was not enough when SADC had thought they found a solution for Lesotho, the Organ office was confronted by another problem.

This time it was DRC where under General Lorraine Nkunda, a small army in the eastern side of the country attacked citizens and forced lots of movements among the people. TheTroika was led by Angola. There were also the general elections in some of the member states amongst them Zimbabwe, which were very tough but were done in accordance with the SADC principles on democratic elections and the SADC intervention led to the government of National Unity (GNU). SADC appointed President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa whose intervention led to a positive election outcome last year.

In 2009 a change of government in Madagascar led to the intervention of SADC with the Organ leading meetings with Andre Rajoelina and Mark Ravalomanana in one of the meetings held in Gaborone. SADC ultimately made Rajoelina to understand what member states want and how it has to be done. Today Mothae leaves a happy man, with among his highlights being that in 2007 the SADC Secretariat launched the SADC Standby Brigade in Lusaka. While in 2009 they successfully held major field training exercise for SADC Standby Forces comprising over 4000 men and women coming from the military, police and civilians in South Africa just purely to test the level of readiness of a standby force and determine their contribution to the AU.

In 2010-11 SADC launched the Regional Early Warning Centre as part of the African Peace and Security Architecture. With  a sense of pride, Mothae talks of SADC having a fully-fledged Regional Peace-keeping Training Centre in Zimbabwe, The Centre has now been transformed into the SADC Centre of Excellence. He leaves a happy man because currently SADC is working closely with numerous international organisations which all contribute positively towards its growth. ‘I can say SADC is moving forward, and I am extremely happy and proud that I am leaving SADC which is peaceful and stable, a SADC which is able to resolve its problems by itself and using its own resources.” But what are Mothae’s future plans? Will he join politics back home?
“I need to go for a Sabbatical leave to reflect more on what has happened.

I will have to join my wife Yande Malimpho as I have been away from her. While on leave, I will map my future. I want to be in business, but my interest will be more on academia. I want to share what SADC can do with the rest of the world,” he said. “For now I want to sit, reflect and come up with a focused approach to many things that may shape my future. But, having worked for SADC, the sky is the limit one can navigate and conquer the world,” he said.