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23 September 2026 by Limpho Sello

Dr. Tesfay Girmay Teklehaimanot, head of the paediatric department at Lesotho’s only referral hospital, Queen ‘Mamohato Memorial Hospital (QMMH), has allegedly failed to provide the Lesotho Medical, Dental and Pharmacy Council (LMDPC) with a certificate proving that he is a paediatrician.

Instead, he has allegedly asked the LMDPC to accept his word and issue him with a retention certificate allowing him to continue working in the country as a paediatrician specialist. This was revealed by the Council’s Deputy President, Dr. Kopang Mohalenyane, in an exclusive interview with Uncensored News on 3 September 2026.

Dr. Teklehaimanot is an expatriate doctor who fled from Eritrea and has been a practicing medical doctor in Lesotho for 12 years. He is one of the 36 doctors working at QMMH, including eight Lesotho nationals, without retention certificates from the LMDPC.

He said Dr. Teklehaimanot’s application to be registered as a paediatrician was rejected about seven times in 2024/25 period alone. In his defense to the Council, Dr. Teklehaimanot allegedly claimed he left his paediatrician qualification when he fled Eretria.

“We told him we were registering him provisionally and next year (2026), he should provide proof that he is a paediatrician, failing which we are going to register him as a general practitioner,” Dr. Mohalenyane said.

“This year again (2026), he wants to apply without certificates again. He comes with verified certificates for general practitioner, leaving behind verified certificates for a paediatric specialist.”

In an interview with Uncensored News on 9 September 2026, Dr. Teklehaimanot said, “I have been working as a general paediatrician for 12 years and had been serving Basotho to the best of my knowledge and ability… I have been working as a paediatrician in Lesotho for years and have all my documents.”

Dr. Teklehaimanot chased a sickly child away

Dr. Teklehaimanot is facing another damning allegation from a grieving mother whose premature daughter died after the doctor allegedly chased her from the hospital following what the mother describes as an incorrect medical prescription of panado, multivitamins, vitamin D and iron supplements. The child had been born prematurely in May 2024 and spent two months at QMMH before being discharged.

“The child got sick she had flue it was on 21 August 2024. The temperatures were high, the pulse rate was also very high, and when it is that high it shows that the child has infection,” the mother told Uncensored News in July 2026.

“That child was big then at 2.6kg. He (Dr Teklehaimanot) said the child had a cough that is on and off, and shortness and nasal congestion. As he continued to examine her, he said the child had blocked nostrils, upper respiratory tract infection, and nasal blockage.”

The mother, a health professional, alleged that that Dr. Teklehaimanot refused to order an X-ray in August 2024, conduct further consultations or admit the baby, saying there was little he could do, before sending the child home with a portable oxygen concentrator.

The mother stated that when her daughter’s condition deteriorated during the second week after Dr. Teklehaimanot refused to order an X-tray in August 2024, she sought help from other doctors at QMMH who allegedly refused to intervene, saying because Dr. Teklehaimanot was the head of the department and the primary attending physician, it was best that she consults  him directly. Instead, Dr. Teklehaimanot allegedly chased them. ​

On 5 September 2024, the mother was forced to leave the country, opting to take her baby to Bloemfontein, South Africa, where the infant was admitted and remained in critical care until her death on 17 October 2024. ​

Doctors in Bloemfontein questioned why the child had not been treated at QMMH given the seriousness of her condition.

“I told them that I took the baby to QMMH, but she had been turned away,” the mother said. “After my daughter died, I lodged the complaint with the Council and was promised that the matter would be thoroughly investigated,” she told Uncensored News.

The Council confirmed the complaint to Uncensored News.

Dr. Teklehaimanot, however, rejected the allegations of negligence and malpractice, saying the matter is before the courts. It would be premature to respond in detail, he told Uncensored News.

“I have been working as a general paediatrician for 12 years and had been serving Basotho to the best of his knowledge and ability.”

Confusing qualifications and dates

On 2 September 2026, Dr. Teklehaimanot appeared before Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC). PAC Chairperson ‘Machabana Lemphane-Letsie said they summoned Dr. Teklehaimanot after the committee asked the mother to withdraw the court case to allow for the committee to summon the doctor before it and investigate allegations of medical malpractice against him.

There, Dr. Teklehaimanot provided the committee with his qualification certificates. But a certificate that confirms him as a paediatrician specialist bears two different qualifications – a degree and a diploma acquired within the same year in an Ethiopian university.

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“This is the same question the Ministry of Health grappled with – a diploma and a degree. It boils down to a point that we are yet to experience serious problems because Lesotho does not train its own doctors, we depend on other people from outside,” Dr. Lucy Mapota, Director of Clinical Services at the Ministry of Health, told PAC on 2 September 2026.

Dr. Teklehaimanot’s certificate also bears two different dates. He completed his studies in 1998, yet the certificate he provided to the PAC bears the dates 2001 and 2003. He said these dates were added when he requested a student copy.

“The student copy they give you every time when you request, they just seal with a date stamp of when you requested it,” Dr. Teklehaimanot told PAC on 2 September 2026. Uncensored News has not been able to independently verify whether this is correct or if the qualifications are fraudulent.

Meanwhile, Dr Teklehaimanot told Uncensored News his medical degree, obtained in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in 1998, had already been verified through the external verification process. His difficulty, he explained, concerned his paediatric specialty qualification, which was obtained in Eritrea.

According to Dr. Teklehaimanot, the verification agency attempted to contact his institution in Eritrea twice, but no response was received. He claimed the institution had to be contacted through postal mail because, according to him, it did not have the internet or email system required for ordinary verification.

“I had approached the Council and asked whether another form of verification could be used because of my circumstances.” He argued that his long experience working alongside Basotho paediatricians and other specialists could also be considered.

 “There is no internet in Eritrea”

In his defense while answering the PAC, he said, “I am an Eritrean. I grew and attended school in Addis [Ababa]. I was deported with family to Eretria. The only means of communication with Ethiopia was through the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). I requested through ICRC because there was no communication in the country. There is no email in Eretria, even now. We do not have internet.”

However, Dr. Teklehaimanot’s claim that there is no internet in Eritrea, even now, is misleading.  According to WorldData, while Eritrea is lagging in the expansion of broadband internet connections, internet access does exist, with around 20 percent of the country’s residents having access to the internet.

WorldData also reports that there are around 5,639 internet connections nationwide that are faster than the former ISDN, including fixed connections through DSL, cable or satellite.

Leadership marked by shocking death levels

Meanwhile,Dr. Teklehaimanot heads QMMH’s paediatric department. Social Cluster Portfolio Committee chairperson, Mokhothu Makhalanyane, said QMMH’s paediatric department recorded 365 deaths of children between January and December 2025.

“We need a clinical audit of Queen ‘Mamohato. Just last year, they reported to us that they admitted close to 100, 000 patients [From January to December 2025]. Around 1, 000 adults died at the hospital and 365 children died there. This makes us doubtful, which children died in the hands of people that we are doubtful of their qualifications,” Makhalanyane said.

Dr. Mapota told Uncensored News on 10 September 2026 that the negligence allegations against Dr. Teklehaimanot does not automatically mean the person is guilty.

“I am a member of these committees and attend the meetings. I am aware of the case reported to us. It is the same case. Regardless, when a case is reported, even if there are allegations, it must go through an investigation. It goes through legal processes, disciplinary hearings, and a verdict is reached following due process,” he said.

“Speaking frankly, whether it involves a written warning or something else, if someone files a complaint with the Council or the Ministry of Health, it does not automatically make that person guilty.”