Huge hurdles face Lesotho’s new leader

TOM Thabane, 81, the embattled veteran Lesotho politician, has finally bowed to pressure to resign as the prime minister of the politically volatile southern African nation of 2.2million. This comes at least two years before the end of his term.

But will his replacement by Moeketsi Majoro, 58, enable Lesotho to move in a more progressive direction?

Majoro is an economist, a former executive at the International Monetary Fund, as well as the country’s former finance minister.

He was recently appointed to lead the governing coalition of the majority All Basotho Convention (ABC), and the Democratic Congress of Lesotho (DCL), ahead of Thabane’s resignation.

The Thabane saga, revolving around allegations that he was party to a conspiracy to murder his thene stranged wife, and that his new wife interferes in state matters, has been dragging on for more than a year.

These events have fed into a raging political conflict within his ruling party, ABC, and its governing coalition with the DCL. This has provided a major distraction to any attempt to address the country’s massive developmental problems.

But setting Lesotho on a significantly different political trajectory will not be easy. Majoro’s installation as prime minister is welcome, but it does not guarantee much-needed political stability. Questions have correctly been posed whether Majoro, a technocrat with a great deal of international experience, has the political skills to hold his governing coalition together.

For the moment, Thabane remains the leader of the All Basotho Convention, and cannot be guaranteed to lend his support to the new government.

Thabane can be expected to use his position to try to secure immunity for himself from prosecution for his alleged role in the murder of his estranged wife, Lipopelo Thabane, 58.

She was shot dead in June 2017 – two days before he was sworn in as the prime minister. Maesaiah Liabiloe Ramoholi, 42, the woman he was living with at the time, and eventually married, is on trial for the murder.

Thabane was also later charged with the murder.

Majoro must know that if he concedes this immunity, he will lose a great deal of domestic and global credibility. But if he doesn’t show some leniency, he may lose the support of a disgruntled element of his party which continues to back Thabane.

How this plays out may influence whether Majoro can secure the leadership of the party at its next congress, expected in February 2021. This may not be plain sailing.

The major problem confronting stability in Lesotho is presented by the military and police. The military’s penchant for direct intervention in the political arena has been curtailed by the insistence of South Africa, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the AU that the legitimacy of coups will not be accepted. Determined efforts to neutralise the military have been made via training programmes carried out by, among others, South Africa, the SADC, India, Britain and Zimbabwe. None have yet succeeded.

For all that Majoro may want to attend to tackling Covid-19 and the economy, his biggest headache may yet turn out to be the army.