President Nelson Mandela said in Durban on Tuesday that he is optimistic a solution will be reached to end the policital crisis in Lesotho.
“I am convinced that we are on the right track to settle Lesotho’s problems and I believe the political leaders and all other people involved will come to an understanding and resolve the problem,” he told reporters.
Mandela spoke after meeting with Lesotho’s Queen Mamohato on the eve of the resumption of negotiations between the country’s feuding government and opposition parties on an agreement to take the kingdom to fresh elections.
“I am sure that a breakthrough is going to come and that that breakthrough is going to lead to lasting peace,” he said.
He said he had invited the mother of Lesotho’s monarch, King Letsie III, to get her views in order to find a solution to the country’s crisis.”I have invited her majesty to come here to brief me about the Lesotho situation. She is my queen and I respect her views,” Mandela said. The president is a close friend of the royal family. The queen’s younger son Prince Seiso and other sources close to her said she called the meeting to talk to him about the deteriorating relationship between the king and his government.
Relations between the monarch and the ruling Lesotho Congress for Democracy have soured since anti-government protests against the May election results gripped the country from the beginning of August. — Agence France Presse