President Jacob Zuma has persuaded the feuding leaders of Lesotho’s coalition government to agree in effect to reverse the military coup which toppled Prime Minister Tom Thabane on Saturday, forcing him to flee to South Africa.
Wearing his hat as head of the security troika of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Zuma met Thabane, his chief rival, Deputy Prime Minister Mothetjoa Metsing, and the third leader of the coalition government, Morena Maseribane in Pretoria yesterday.
In a joint statement with the SADC, the Basotho politicians recommitted themselves to the Windhoek Declaration which they signed last month. Essentially that means Metsing – who was clearly behind Saturday’s coup – agreed once again to rescind his earlier decision to leave Thabane’s coalition and form a new one with opposition leader Pakalitha Mosisili.
In exchange, Thabane agreed to lift his suspension of parliament, done to prevent Metsing and Mosisili passing a vote of no confidence in him and thereby ousting his government. It is by no means clear from the statement why this deal will stick this time when it did not stick before. Metsing and Mosisili rescinded their coalition deal last month but Thabane reneged on his matching agreement to recall parliament, fearing – probably rightly – that they would immediately vote him out of office.
Another big question left unanswered is about the position of army chief General Tlali Kamoli who carried out the coup, presumably on Metsing’s orders. Thabane “fired” him on Saturday after he fled but Kamoli rejected his dismissal as did Metsing. Is Thabane expected to trust an army chief who deposed him – and who, incidentally bears responsibility for the reported death of one policeman and injury to several others during the coup.
While he remains at the helm of the army, most police officers remain in hiding and so courts and other government institutions are not functioning for lack of police protection.
One can only hope that answers to these and other questions are to be read between the lines. For the only real solution for this untenable government is to put a caretaker in charge and hold fresh elections.