OWN CORRESPONDENT, Maseru | Thursday 10.00pm.
LOOTING and mayhem has spread thoughout Lesotho, while the capital, Maseru, remains volatile with mutinous troops and dissidents in the hills still shooting into the city at random.
Althought the joint task force of South African National Defence Force and Botswana troops had regained some degree of control in Maseru, there are not sufficient numbers to protect shops and businesses in other towns.
Business owners reported on SABC3 that they had warned that outlying areas and towns remained vulnerable, but that the joint task force had concentrated on Maseru, and as a result mobs had had a free run. South African businesses in particular have been targeted. Most South African businesspeople have tried to salvage what they can and have fled the country.
Masuru itself is in ruins and shops everywhere are closed. Many have been looted and burnt. As a result people in Lesotho are already experiencing shortages of food and fuel.
Meanwhile the head of the Institute of Security Studies, Jakkie Celliers, has hinted that South Africa was misled by elements its intelligence services, and as a result misjudged the situation in Lesotho. The acutely embarrasing result, a “dilpomatic, military and intelligence” failure, will “stay with South Africa for a long, long time”, he said.
Thursday 7.00pm:
PRESIDENT Nelson Mandela on Thursday said that troops will stay in Lesotho for as long as it takes to restore stability.
Speaking at the start of a two-day visit to Canada, Mandela said: “If we are convinced that what we are doing is right, that is good.” He also insisted that South African and other regional governments “tried peaceful means,” in resolving the Lesotho troubles, but when that failed “only then did we use force.”
Meanwhile, in a lengthy broadcast on on the state-controlled Radio Lesotho on Thursday night, Lesotho prime minister Pakalitha Mosisili claimed that opposition political parties had conspired to assassinate him and senior members of his government. Mosisili gave his version of events leading to the crisis in Lesotho, repeatedly describing people who had protested against the election results before this week’s military intervention by Southern African Development Community troops as “rampaging hordes”.
He said the decision to call for SADC intervention was not an easy one. The decision was not made for selfish reasons but to restore law order and stability in Lesotho, he said. He also accused opposition parties of working closely with rebel soldiers to cause chaos in the mountain kingdom.
Opposition parties on Thursday night dismissed Mosisili’s assassination claim as “trash”, and said his accusation that they worked with rebels as a claim that “can only come from a man who has always lived in fear because he knows that he is where he is through a botched election.”.
On Thursday night Mosisili personally stopped the monarch, King Letsie III, from speaking on the same radio station.