Lesotho on brink of crisis as poll looms
LESOTHO is on a knife edge as it prepares to hold snap general elections tomorrow, its third in five years.
The Lesotho Defence Force (LDF), the prime source of decades of instability in the mountainous kingdom, this week rejected allegations that it was preparing to stage a coup if the elections are won by the man it opposes, former prime minister Thomas Thabane, of the All Basotho Convention (ABC) and his allies.
The coup allegations were raised after a letter was leaked in which the LDF sought permission from the relevant authorities to be allocated 22 pieces of land, including hills and plateaus, around the country.
The request was seen as an attempt by the LDF to place its men around strategic areas to either intimidate voters or unleash a reign of terror if the elections are won by parties it opposes. But even if the LDF keeps its word and stays in barracks regardless of who wins, scepticism abounds about the prospects of restoring stability in Lesotho unless the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) imposes sustained pressure on any new government to ensure the implementation of recommendations of its commission of inquiry into instability in the country.
The inquiry, the first of its kind by the SADC, was established in 2015 and led by Botswana High Court judge Phumaphi Mphaphi. It recommended a raft of constitutional and security sector reforms to put an end to the political instability in a country which has witnessed a series of coups and mutinies.
Only the deployment of South African troopsin 1998 stopped Lesotho from total disintegration.
The Mphaphi commission was established by the SADC in the wake of an attempted coup against then prime minister Thabane in August 2014 and the June 2015 murder of Maapaarankoe Mahao, a former commander of the LDF, by fellow soldiers.
No substantial progress has been recorded in implementing the commission’s recommendations because of the continual squabbling among Lesotho’s key political players.
Incumbent Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili lost a no-confidence vote in parliament on March 1 and then resorted to a law that allows any sitting prime minister to circumvent ousting from power by dissolving parliament within three days of a no-confidence vote and ordering fresh elections.
It is these kinds of arbitrary powers that the SADC commission said needed overhauling.
Mosisili lost the no-confidence motion after his own Democratic Congress party, the main player in his outgoing coalition, unravelled and its deputy leader, Monyane Moleleki, broke away and joined forces with Thabane’s ABC.