Lesotho’s scandal-hit prime minister is to step down immediately following an agreement between the coalition government and political parties in the southern African mountain kingdom, a joint statement said on Monday.
Basotho Prime Minister Thomas Thabane, who has been accused of involvement in the murder of his first wife, would be allowed a “dignified retirement” under the deal negotiated by mediators from South Africa.
The 80-year-old leader in February appeared in court, where his lawyer argued that his office granted him immunity from prosecution for allegedly murdering his estranged first wife shortly before he took power.
Photo: AFP
Lipolelo Thabane, 58, was shot several times at close range as she sat in a car near her home, two days before her husband’s inauguration in 2017. She had reportedly refused a divorce and won a court battle to retain her privileges as first lady until any formal separation.
Thomas Thabane remarried two months after her death. His current wife, Maesaiah Thabane, 42, has been charged with murder after briefly fleeing the country. Both have denied any wrongdoing.
The case was brought back into the spotlight in January after a letter from Lesotho’s police chief emerged claiming communication records showed that someone at the murder scene had called Thomas Thabane’s mobile phone on the day of the crime.
The killing was initially blamed on unknown criminals.
Lesotho has one of the highest murder rates in the world.
Investigators have since said that they believe professional killers, possibly hired in South Africa, carried out the attack.
Thomas Thabane had already pledged to step down at the end of July, but South African mediator Jeff Radebe told journalists in Lesotho’s capital, Maseru, that “the timeline is immediate” for his leaving office.
The veteran politician made a final attempt to hold on to power over the weekend, on Saturday sending soldiers and armored vehicles onto the streets of Maseru to restore order against “rogue national elements.”
The move prompted authorities in South Africa, which surrounds Lesotho, to send envoys to the poor mountain kingdom of 2 million people.
Thomas Thabane said that he had deployed the army to deal with forces he claimed wanted to destabilize Lesotho.
The country has experienced several coups since gaining independence from Britain in 1966.
In 1998, at least 58 people and eight South African soldiers died and parts of Maseru were damaged during a political standoff and subsequent fighting.
The latest upheaval follows Thomas Thabane’s decision last month to suspend parliament without consultation over the COVID-19 pandemic.
Lesotho has no confirmed cases of the disease and the move was challenged in the constitutional court by coalition partners, as well as about 20 rivals within his own party.
The court on Friday last week ruled against the suspension, calling it “irrational,” paving the way for a vote of no-confidence against Thomas Thabane once parliament reconvenes.
Through the noise of rushing papers and whirring belts at a print factory in Kyoto, two creators watch their photo essay come to life in broadsheet form — part of an effort to win new audiences in the age of artificial intelligence (AI). Despite the decline of the publishing industry, self-publication and handmade “zine” magazines are growing in popularity in Japan, reflecting the nation’s enduring love of paper in the digital era. While speaking to Agence France-Presse at the plant, his hands black with ink, one of the creators, Kazuma Obara, said: “I think [paper] is a medium that engages all five
‘ABSURD MISTAKE’: The election commission said that there had been a failure to anticipate turnout after 14 polling stations ran short of ballot papers South Korean riot police yesterday cleared protesters from a Seoul polling station after a 35-hour blockade sparked by a shortage of ballot papers during local elections earlier this week. Wednesday’s election was the first nationwide vote since South Korean President Lee Jae-myung took office following the ouster of Yoon Suk-yeol over his short-lived martial law declaration. Lee’s ruling Democratic Party swept most races, but failed to flip the crucial Seoul mayoral seat. The South Korean National Election Commission apologized, blaming a failure to anticipate turnout after 14 polling stations in Seoul ran short of ballot papers. Some polling stations stayed open until 10pm to
Australian researchers have trained lab-grown brain cells on a silicon computer chip to play the 1990s shooter game Doom and said they are just scratching the surface of what the neurons could be capable of doing. It is the science-fiction work of biotech boffins at Cortical Labs, who researched and developed the technology that harnesses the workings of the brain’s networking system. Each so-called “biological computer” contains about 200,000 living human brain cells, grown from stem cells that were harvested from blood donations. Having mastered the simple computer game Pong, where a paddle is moved up and down to send a ball
France experienced its hottest spring on record, the French weather service said on Tuesday, after an exceptional early heat wave that also broke highs for the season in England and Wales. Meteo-France said the average nationwide temperature over March to May was 13.8°C — about 1.7°C above the norm, and surpassing records set in 2011 and 2020. “The warmest spring since records began in 1900,” it said in a bulletin. All three months were warmer than average, but the onset of an “unprecedented heatwave” late last month pushed the mercury to highs typically seen at the height of the summer. “Our country had never
RSS