Conflict unresolved
The political discord in the tiny kingdom is blamed on a powerful general
Awalk in downtown Maseru, where newspaper posters lay bare a never-ending power struggle, reveals Lesotho’s troubled state of affairs even as the kingdom nears its golden jubilee celebrations.
The mood is anything but celebratory. Locals still talk about the August 2014 putsch and 2015’s abductions and murders. Others cite the recent killing of four Qeme villagers, as they returned from an opposition party rally, to argue that the storm is not over.
Opposition party leader MP Lehlohonolo Moramotse recently told the Lesotho Times that he suspected he was the target of an attack on his vehicle that claimed the life of his daughter.
The recent assassination attempt on the editor of the newspaper at his home, days after its publisher was charged with crimen injuria (for publishing a satirical article), is the latest incident of violence.
The newspaper had been critical of Lt-Gen Tlali Kamoli, a powerful figure and commander of the Lesotho Defence Force.
Lesotho and its 2m inhabitants are heavily dependent on SA for remittances. But with SA’s economy under pressure, the kingdom’s is in pain too. Lesotho is regarded as one of the poorest countries in the world. Its fragile political situation has worsened its prospects.
In a surprise announcement, Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili recently said he would axe Kamoli.
Arguably the most feared man in Lesotho, Kamoli was previously fired for insubordination by Tom Thabane just before Thabane’s term as prime minister was cut short by the 2014 turmoil.
But last year, after elections, Kamoli was rehired by the 71-year-old Mosisili.
Kamoli is the man seen to be at the centre of Lesotho’s problems. He is blamed for the coup against Thabane — who went into exile — and has been a loyalist to Mosisili. The Southern African Development Community (SADC) recommended that Kamoli be fired.
Thabane is one of the loudest advocates for the commander’s dismissal.
In a break with tradition, local chiefs have entered the fray and openly accused Mosisili and his government of stifling attempts by the SADC to hammer out a deal that will bring stability to the country.
“I don’t know what surprises you [about] these incidents that are taking place these days, because this government is a cruel government,” Thabane told Qeme mourners by phone.
Speaking from exile, he lashed out at Mosisili’s administration for killing “people”.
Mosisili’s suggestion that Kamoli will be fired has been celebrated as a step towards stability and accountability, but it’s not enough. Until very recently, the prime minister’s party, the Lesotho Congress for Democracy, had scoffed at suggestions that he be dismissed.
The SADC — which recently concluded its commission of inquiry into instability in the country — did not find Mosisili’s reappointment of Kamoli to be unlawful, but it still expressed disagreement with it.
“The manner in which [the reappointment of Kamoli] was done . . . is improper,” notes the regional body. His reappointment “perpetuated the divisions within the defence force as he vowed to deal with those who [had] celebrated his removal”. The SADC says some soldiers fled and the threat “caused some officers to resign”.
Mosisili denies links between Kamoli’s return and the turmoil.
But the SADC believes Kamoli should go. “[The] fleeing of opposition party leaders after Kamoli’s reappointment and parliamentary boycott by opposition amounts to political instability,” says the regional body, whose envoy, SA deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa, has visited the capital regularly since the 2014 attempted coup d’état.
SADC mediation facilitated Thabane’s return and snap polls followed last February. But after a transfer of power, he fled once more last May, saying he feared for his life.
Despite the efforts of the SADC and others to extricate the kingdom from what pundits and Washington term the “abyss”, its political situation is far from resolved.
SADC leaders may have tried to return the country to normality, but the hit on the Lesotho Times editor, and the fact that Kamoli still commands power, are just the latest indications that its attempts have amounted to very little.