PAC orders LNC registrar to revoke nursing assistant’s certificate

…as she says ABC-linked ex-husband helped her obtain it

Moroke Sekoboto

THE Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has ordered Lesotho Nursing Council (LNC) Registrar, Flavia Moetsana, to revoke the nursing assistant certificate of Queen Mamohato Memorial Hospital (QMMH) employee, Mantsane Likotsi, after she admitted that she never sat for the required nursing licensure examination.

The Committee also directed QMMH Human Resources Manager, Makatleho Lefielo, to terminate Ms Likotsi’s employment following revelations that she allegedly obtained the certificate without completing the examination required for professional registration.

Ms Likotsi made the admission before PAC yesterday during its inquiry into the operations of QMMH.

She told the Committee that she did not sit for the nursing licensure examination, which candidates are required to pass before they can be registered and allowed to practise.

Likotsi, who holds a Nursing Assistant certificate from the National Health Training College, said her practising certificate from LNC was obtained with the assistance of a politically connected individual.

She initially declined to identify the person, saying she feared for her life because she had allegedly been threatened with death after questioning him about the origins of the certificate.

She later identified the individual as Khotso Matabane, whom she described as an ABC-linked politician and her former husband.

Ms Likotsi told PAC that Matabane had arranged for her to obtain the certificate and had also helped her secure employment during the COVID-19 pandemic.

She said he organised work for her at a quarantine centre at the Maseru border and later at another centre near Iketsetseng in Maseru.

“There is a politician who threatened me with death when I asked him where he got the certificate, but only ordered me to take it to the job he had applied for at the Ministry of Health during COVID-19. I still fear for my life and I have a case in the Criminal Investigation Division at Pitso Ground Police Station,” Likotsi told the committee.

Likotsi said her relationship with Matabane had since deteriorated following their divorce and a dispute over their children.

She alleged that it was during the dispute that Mr Matabane reported her to the police and PAC for working with a fraudulent certificate.

She maintained, however, that Mr Matabane knew about the certificate and had been involved in obtaining it.

A representative of the LNC told the Committee that, under the Nursing and Midwifery Act, persons completing the requisite nursing or midwifery training must sit for and pass the council’s licensure examinations before they can be registered to practise.

The LNC has since confirmed that Likotsi’s membership is invalid and said it was in the process of revoking her registration.

PAC, however, expressed concern over what it regarded as the council’s reluctance to formally cancel the registration and ordered Ms Moetsana to proceed with the revocation.

The alleged fraud is already under investigation by the Lesotho Mounted Police Service (LMPS).

Ms Likotsi’s case could expose her to possible criminal prosecution if investigators establish that she knowingly used a fraudulent certificate to secure or retain employment.

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