Maseru LESOTHO
Lesotho Prime Minister, Thomas Thabane, is expected on Friday to be
charged with the murder of his estranged wife, who was gunned down two days
before his inauguration in 2017, police said on Thursday.
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| Prime Minister, Thomas Thabane |
The news came as Thabane announced he
would step down on July 31, following
pressure from his party to quit over the scandal.
“It has been agreed with his
lawyer that he will appear [in court] and he will be formally charged with...
murder,” Deputy Police Commissioner Paseka Mokete said of the case that has
also drawn in the prime minister’s current wife.
Lilopelo Thabane, 58, was killed
in June 2017 by unknown assailants on the outskirts of the capital Maseru, two
days before the premier, now aged 80, took office.
The couple had been embroiled in
bitter divorce proceedings when Lipolelo was murdered in front of her home in
the capital Maseru.
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| Lilopelo Thabane, 58, was killed in June 2017 |
Her death shook the tiny
mountainous kingdom of Lesotho, which is entirely surrounded by South Africa.
Police investigations found that communications
records from the day of the murder included his cell phone number.
“It has to be understood that it
does not necessarily mean he was there but that he was acting in common
purpose,” Mokete said.
On Tuesday, Thabane’s current
wife Maesaiah Thabane,
42, appeared in court charged with the same murder of her rival.
“She was charged with murder
under common purpose even though she did not pull the trigger, but people she
was acting in consent with pulled the trigger,” Mokete said by phone.
The long unresolved murder had
plunged the PM’s leadership into question, forcing his All Basotho Convention
(ABC) party to ask him to resign. The ABC had given him until Thursday to step
aside but he snubbed their deadline, instead saying he will only go on July 31.
 |
| Maesaiah Thabane, 42 |
“I will be retiring as the Prime Minister
effectively from the end of July,” he said in an address on national radio. “I
hope that the remaining months that I will spend in office will afford
parliament and my party enough time to work on transitional arrangements.”
Thabane’s re-election in 2017 had
brought hopes of stability to Lesotho, a country with a long history of
turmoil.
He first came to power in 2012 as
head of the country’s first coalition government, formed after an inconclusive
vote. But his second term was rocked by Lipolelo’s murder and ructions in the
ruling party, buffeting the picturesque kingdom of 2.2 million people. -
Africa
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