TUESDAY, 5.30PM
LESOTHO opposition parties on Tuesday called for strikes and a civil disobedience campaign in protest at what they call the coup by Prime Minister Ntsu Mokhehle.
“We are going to make Lesotho ungovernable and the parliament unworkable,” said opposition leader Tseliso Makhakhe, who is a deputy and president of the ruling Basotho Congress Party, which ousted Mokhehle as party leader in March. At the time, Mokhehle was also relieved of his post as PM, but had the decision reversed after a court challenge.
Mokhehle on Monday formed a new party, the Lesotho Congress for Democracy, and declared that it was taking the reins of power from the long-ruling BCP. In response, the BCP then moved to form an alliance with the country’s seven opposition parties to denounce the new government, which it said was formed “contrary to the constitution and without the people’s mandate.”
The opposition parties said after an hour-long meeting on Tuesday that they are planning “drastic measures”, including strikes in the tiny mountain kingdom.
Fearing that the new government might move to block planned democratic elections in 1998, they also called on King Letsie III to sign new legislation governing the poll as soon as possible.