Pretoria - The Southern African Development Community (SADC) guidelines and reforms aimed at bringing peace and stability to Lesotho will be implemented at all costs, Lesotho Prime Minister Tom Thabane said on Friday.
Mobbed by reporters at the end of the double troika summit of the SADC heads of state and government in Pretoria late on Friday, Thabane initially refused to take questions, but as journalists persisted he said he had asked the SADC to assist his nation.
"It's SADC, and I came to SADC because I knew that SADC is SADC. My confidence as a member of SADC is in the total leadership of SADC [that] together they make the right decisions," Thabane responded to numerous questions from journalists as he walked on the red carpet.
On implementing the SADC prescribed reforms, Thabane said: "Yes of course, I'm a reformist by nature. The way forward, [we are] going for reforms and having peace in Lesotho".
The SADC guidelines and reforms aimed at bringing peace and stability to Lesotho will be implemented at all costs, Lesotho Prime Minister Tom Thabane said. Video: ANA
Earlier, it was announced at the Pretoria summit that the regional bloc was sending a contingent force which would include military and intelligence components to Lesotho.
"[The] Summit approved the deployment of a contingent force comprising [of] military, security, intelligence, and civilian experts to support the government of the Kingdom of Lesotho and directed the chiefs of defence and security to assess the requirements to determine the appropriate size of the contingent force, and to prepare the modalities for the deployment," SADC executive secretary Stergomena Lawrence Tax said at the end of the summit.
She said the summit had "strongly condemned" the assassination of Lesotho Defence Force commander Lt-Gen Khoantle Motsomotso earlier this month, prompting the SADC meeting to contain the degenerating situation in Maseru.
"The right honourable Motsoahae Thomas Thabane, prime minister of the Kingdom of Lesotho, was also invited. The double troika summit was also attended by SADC facilitator to Lesotho, Deputy President of South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa," said Tax.