JUST IN: Lesotho PM Thomas Thabane resigns

Lesotho's Prime Minister Thomas Thabane attends a European Union-Africa summit in Brussels, Belgium in 2014. File picture: Francois Lenoir/Reuters

Lesotho's Prime Minister Thomas Thabane attends a European Union-Africa summit in Brussels, Belgium in 2014. File picture: Francois Lenoir/Reuters

Published May 19, 2020

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Maseru - Lesotho's Prime Minister Thomas

Thabane resigned on Tuesday, removing the main hurdle to

resolving a political crisis that engulfed the small southern

African mountain kingdom late last year.

Thabane's departure marks the end of one of Lesotho's

longest political careers, one marked by exile, feuding,

intrigue, tensions with the military and a political crisis that

erupted when police named him as a suspect in a murder case late

last year.

His own All Basotho Convention (ABC) party, opposition

figures and South African mediators, had been heaping pressure

on the prime minister to resign over a case in which he and his

current wife are suspected of conspiring to murder his former

wife nearly three years ago.

They have both denied any involvement.

"The time to retire from the great theatre of action, take

leave from public life and office has finally arrived," the

eighty-year-old told citizens in a speech on Lesotho TV.

"I plead with the entire nation and leadership to give my

successor utmost support, and on my part I wish to assure him of

my support at all material times," he added.

Finance minister Moeketsi Majoro has been named by

parliament as Thabane's interim replacement.

Reuters

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