The Lesotho government will relax the restrictions of the curfew it imposed after a spate of attacks on Cabinet ministers, Prime Minister Phakalitha Mosisili said on Tuesday.
Briefing the media in Cape Town after meeting South African President Thabo Mbeki at Tuynhuys, Mosisili said the curfew, which was imposed on Saturday, will now be modified.
”This morning I was briefed … that the police commissioner was of the view that the curfew should be modified from 6pm to 6am, to 8pm to 5am,” he said.
He said the curfew was imposed after some Cabinet ministers’ homes were attacked.
”The commissioner felt that it was necessary to impose the curfew to contain these kinds of crime,” he said.
Mosisili conceded that the attacks could be linked to political tensions in the country following disputes over the allocation of parliamentary seats.
”There was unhappiness about the way proportional-representation seats were allocated,” he said.
Opposition parties are contesting the way parliamentary seats were allocated after elections in February.
Mosisili attributed the controversy over the allocation of seats to the formation of alliances by opposition parties shortly before the elections.
”We will await the ruling of the court to see if those alliances were lawful … or whether they undermined the spirit of proportional representation,” he said.
International experts would also visit the country to assess the manner in which the seats were allocated.
Mosisili is on an official visit to discuss political, economic and trade relations between his landlocked country and South Africa.
Ministers from the two countries signed memoranda of understanding on Tuesday, intended to facilitate the free movement of people between Lesotho and South Africa. — Sapa