Harare(New Ziana)-A team of South African envoys on Thursday met President Emmerson Mnangagwa to brief him on simmering tensions in Lesotho in the wake of pressure on the country’s premier to stand down.
President Mnangagwa is chairman of the Organ on Politics and Defence of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) which deals with regional security issues.
Lesotho Prime Minister Thomas Thabane is under growing pressure, even from his party, to resign after being implicated in the murder of his estranged wife in 2017.
The murder, and the subsequent demands for the premier to stand down has fueled tension in the country which has a long history of coups and political assassinations.
South Africa is mediating in the crisis on behalf of SADC, and President Cyril Ramaphosa recently dispatched former Energy Minister Jeff Radebe and team to Lesotho on a fact-finding mission.
Radebe met President Mnangagwa on Thursday at State House to appraise him of his findings in Maseru, and map the way forward.
Prime Minister Thabane has reportedly agreed to step down as early as July, but wants to secure constitutionally-enshrined guarantees he would not be prosecuted for his wife’s murder.
Radebe said SADC was keen to ensure a smooth transition in Lesotho, and avoid bloody political upheavals of the past.
“We have been asked by our President Ramaphosa of South Africa to brief His Excellency President of Zimbabwe in his capacity as chair of the Security Organ of Sadc about the developments and progress being made in the Kingdom of Lesotho.
“We made a thorough presentation to him about what is unfolding in Lesotho, the processes that the people of Lesotho are embarking upon in order to ensure that the decision of the Prime Minister Thabane of retiring from politics is implemented so that there is peaceful transition in the country” he said.
Radebe added: “He appreciated the brief that we have given him and we will see what happens in Lesotho as we go forward”.
Foreign Affairs and International Trade Minister Sibusiso Moyo, who was in the meeting, said Sadc was optimistic of a peaceful transition in Lesotho.
“His (PM Thabane) own party has given him four days so that he can then stand down and that will depend on the approval by the Senate of the Constitutional Amendment which is currently in the Senate,” he said.
Moyo said PM Thabane was currently negotiating for the setting aside of his murder charges after his resignation.
“Court processes remain but our understanding is that he is asking for liberty post his retirement. He is asking for security, he is asking for a situation whereby he is not subjected to the court processes. So far they are agreeing,” said the Minister.
New Ziana
