Sending a peacekeeping force is no longer an option for restoring calm to Maseru, as armed soldiers and civilians prepare to repel the force from the kingdom. Sechaba ka’Nkosi and Howard Barrell report
Brigadiers in the Lesotho Defence Force have assumed effective control of the country following the complete collapse of the civilian and administrative order.
The army takeover follows close on the sacking of 28 senior officers – after allegations that they conspired with the ruling Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD)to rig the outcome of the general elections in May – and the unceremonious resignation of the head of the army, Lieutenant General Makhula Mosakeng, last week.
Minister of Safety and Security Sydney Mufamadi, Director General in the Office of the Deputy President Frank Chikane and foreign affairs Director General Jackie Selebi flew into Lesotho on Thursday to hand over the Langa commission’s report into alleged irregularities in the May elections.
As they handed copies to government and opposition leaders, King Letsie III and the Independent Electoral Commission, which was charged with overseeing the election, statements from opposition leaders expressed fears that there might be military intervention by a Southern African Development Community (SADC) peacekeeping force to restore order.
Molapo Qhobela of the opposition Basotho Congress Party warned: “Any intervention from outside will be interpreted by our people as aggression against King Letsie and his kingdom. So whatever happens from now, we are ready. Lesotho is a sovereign state and not an SADC colony.”
Opposition parties want Letsie to appoint an interim administration representing stakeholders across the spectrum to govern the country for up to 18 months, until a new election is called.
Lesotho government officials played down the impact of the army control, saying they were still in “total command” of the situation. Yet the capital, Maseru, was virtually sealed off by army officers at all strategic points and there were constant foot patrols on all streets this week.
The four-month-old election protests have plunged Lesotho’s administration into chaos and brought the economy to a virtual standstill, with the army now the only visible sign of governance.
The explanation given by junior officers for their intervention was that they wanted to protect the Constitution and Letsie, and to avert a possible bloodbath between security forces and growing opposition to Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili’s embattled regime.
The royal palace was this week jointly guarded by Lesotho Defence Force (LDF) members and heavily armed civilian marshals from among the opposition protesters.
Since the situation deteriorated last week, Mosisili, who is also Lesotho’s defence minister, has hardly been seen in public and the government profile has been taken over by Minister of Foreign Affairs Tom Thabane.
The news about the arrest of senior officers was broken to Mosisili by junior officers, prior to Mosakeng’s announcement on state-owned radio and his subsequent resignation.
Organised business and civilians interpreted this as the first steps to an effective military coup that could bring Mosisili’s government to its knees. One businessman, who spoke on condition of anonymity, described the current situation in the country as a “great cause for concern” for every citizen. He said the economy would take at least a year to recover.
“We thought business would flourish after the elections, but now we are back to square one. Some businesses are already shedding jobs, which has its own political ramifications because of the instability. Once the situation has stabilised, we will need to convince investors the country is safe again for business, which could take a long time to achieve.”
Even the findings of the Langa commission appear to have been superseded by the latest development, which has left the military establishment torn between supporters of the ruling LCD and the opposition.
According to sources, all the sacked officers were members of the country’s military intelligence while the officers who arrested them are believed to be sympathetic to the three main opposition parties.
The opposition is spearheaded by the Basotho National Party – the largest party and the one believed to have won the May election – the Basotho Congress Party and the Maremathlou Freedom Party.
The sacked officers are also believed to have been behind last week’s confrontation between the security forces and opposition protesters outside the royal palace. The confrontation left a number of people injured.
The situation in Lesotho has been complicated by plans to send in an SADC peacekeeping force. The opposition parties have publicly denounced the SADC and mobilised their growing support base for an open conflict with the peacekeepers. “We are faced with this situation because the SADC failed to provide clear leadership out of the conflict,” said Qhobela. “Instead they have played political and diplomatic monkey tricks among themselves.”
The peace initiative, initially hatched by SADC leaders in Botswana on Wednesday, is seen largely as foreign aggression against a sovereign state. The opposition also dashed any hopes for a peaceful settlement of the crisis by making new demands and seeking more concessions from the collapsing government.
As with the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Africa and Zimbabwe again find themselves pitted on opposite sides of the conflict.
Opposition parties in Lesotho say South Africa and Deputy President Thabo Mbeki in particular genuinely tried to find solutions, while Zimbabwe and Botswana used diplomacy to block the findings of the Langa commission.
A senior South African government official said on Thursday that unfolding events in Lesotho were being viewed “very seriously”. He said: “There is an army that is disloyal to the Constitution, to the government of the day, and which does not respect its own officers. It is an untenable situation.”
An official in the Department of Foreign Affairs confirmed that since Wednesday South Africa had received pleas for assistance from “between 13 and 15” Lesotho citizens. “A number of them are soldiers of various ranks,” the official said. “But none of them are generals, as some media reports have claimed. We have no names available at this stage. They have lodged applications at our high commission in Maseru.”
They have been given permission to remain in South African for one week and have been told they can apply for political asylum. The officers, are understood to be in Ladybrand in the Free State.
Senior South African military officers and officials were locked in meetings on Thursday. One of their main agenda items was the unfolding crisis in Lesotho, according to a senior South African National Defence Force official. He said: “We do not see any big threat to South Africa in what is happening in Lesotho. And we don’t want to threaten Lesotho’s people and government.”
He added: “There has not been any need for us to take any additional measures. The fact that some people have recently noticed increased troop movements on our border with Lesotho can be explained by the fact that we have been changing military units involved in guarding that particular border. Whenever a change of units occurs, as it does periodically, you have a brief doubling up of soldiers in an area.”
Police in Ladybrand have formulated contingency plans to deal with an expected influx of refugees across the border.