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Lesotho Prime Minister Tom Thabane completes his third day back in office and home today after spending four days in South Africa where he had sought refuge fleeing a military coup. PM Thabane is leading an unstable three-party coalition that assumed office in 2012 when elections failed to yield an outright winner.
His defection to South Africa and return on Wednesday dramatise the political and security challenges his country has gone through not only since 2012, but also in Lesotho’s 48-year history.
In June, PM Thabane suspended parliament in an effort to deal with the conflict in the governing coalition, setting himself on collision course with his deputy, Mothetjoa Metsing, who leads a rival party.
Metsing has support from the military, so apparently to curtail that relationship, PM Thabane recently sacked the commander of the armed forces, Tlali Kamoli. The PM accuses Kamoli of corruption. He resisted the sacking. He and Metsing stand accused of masterminding the apparent Saturday coup, an accusation they deny.
The weekend drama is only part of Lesotho’s bad history of military coups. That country has experienced at least three takeovers by troops since 1986.
The Sadc Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Co-operation did well to contain the security risk. The troika, in agreement with the Lesotho authorities agreed to have parliament’s suspension lifted, Kamoli to leave office and for the coalition partners to commit to working together. The Sadc organ also helped PM Thabane to return home safely as he did on Wednesday.
While we ask ourselves whether history will not repeat itself once more, we have to say Basotho must develop a culture of conducting themselves in a responsible manner that does not endanger their democracy and security. They collectively have to renounce their reputation of military involvement in civilian and political activities.
At an individual level, we appeal to PM Thabane to exercise restraint when dealing with his partners in the inclusive government he heads. He can draw lessons from how President Mugabe held our own version of a coalition government intact for four years.
There are natural contradictions that come with former belligerents uniting to run one government jointly, but clever and mature leadership of that inherently conflictual arrangement ensures it does not collapse.
Metsing, on his part, must stop conniving with the military to undermine his senior coalition partner. Those machinations do nothing but provoke his partner into making extra-ordinary, self-preservative decisions such as suspending parliament.
Both PM Thabane and DPM Metsing have to realise that they are in office, not for their personal interest, but the common interest of the Basotho people who want peace, security and national development. Fighting threatens these.
Kamoli denies he led a coup, or attempted one. However, we contend that actions of those under his direct command, and whom he didn’t reprove, constitute a military coup.
Why did his men surround PM Thabane’s official residence without him ordering them back to the barracks? Who instructed them to barricade the home of their commander-in-chief, a civilian whose personal security they must constitutionally protect? Why did soldiers take over the radio and television stations? Why did armed soldiers disarm police and occupy the police’s national headquarters?
Collectively, even individually these actions bear the hallmarks of a military take-over of government, a coup d’état. What Kamoli, Metsing or those acting on his behalf didn’t do was just to verbalise the power seizure on the radio and television broadcast stations they had occupied.
The world abhors military coups. The African Union and Sadc have a standing position that they will not tolerate military coups and demand, at all times, constitutionally elected governments to run countries.
Therefore, we implore the Lesotho Defence Force and its commanders and the sacked Kamoli to respect democracy. They must know that they exist to defend the Lesotho constitution whether PM Thabane is in office or DPM Metsing. That understanding must always be at the back of their minds no matter how militarily superior they view themselves to be over civilian authority.
At another level, Sadc did well to expeditiously bring the Basotho gladiators to order. It only took a few hours for the regional bloc to respond, and four days to reinstate an elected government. We think that was a swift diplomatic response to diffuse what, to all intents and purposes, was a military challenge.
We celebrate the success of diplomacy in this instance which must be the Sadc standard.
Our message of peace and restraint goes to PM Thabane, DPM Metsing, former commander Kamoli and all the Basotho.
It must resonate right through to DRC, Egypt, Libya and other African hotspots.
Online Reporter