An uncertain coup in Lesotho

Lesotho Prime Minister Tom Thabane and his political rivals in the tiny landlocked kingdom are threatening to abandon the compromise deal they reached in Pretoria on September 1 with Mr Zuma and officials of the Southern African Development Community (SADC).At the end of last month Mr Thabane fled to South Africa to escape a revolt […]

Lesotho Prime Minister Tom Thabane and his political rivals in the tiny landlocked kingdom are threatening to abandon the compromise deal they reached in Pretoria on September 1 with Mr Zuma and officials of the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
At the end of last month Mr Thabane fled to South Africa to escape a revolt by the military that he characterised as a coup against him. The army chief, Tladi Kamoli, who the prime minister dismissed earlier, denied an attempted coup. The country’s non-executive monarch, King, Letsie III, however gazetted the appointment of Lieutenant General Maaparankoe Mahao, to replace Kamoli. Zuma reportedly got Thabane to agree to convene parliament on September 19, 2014; but soon declared that in a situation in which ‘’a renegade army general….has gone rogue with some weapons … and refuses to submit to authority … is not the time to re-open parliament’’.
The new army chief on his part reiterated a call previously rejected by Zuma that SADC take ‘’military operations’’ inside Lesotho to disarm Kamoli.
 Thabane runs the coalition government of his All Basotho Convention (ABC) party with the Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD). Its promise of a cooperative culture that avoids an exclusivist ‘’winner-take-all’’ governance, however, collapsed in June when Thabane shut down parliament apparently to forestall a vote-of no- confidence in his government.
The deputy prime minister and leader of coalition partner, Pakalitha Mosisili, is a known Kamoli ally. Thabane is convinced that if parliament resumed sitting, his opponents would dismiss him from power and reinstate Kamoli.  How Zuma navigates these complex issues is important for the sustenance of democracy in Lesotho.
With a population of 2.1 million people, Lesotho shares similar status with territorially vast countries like Botswana and Namibia, and with Swaziland being also small in population and territorial space.  
 Prime Minister Thabane and his deputy both showed lack of skill for and commitment to building democracy through a cobbled road of disagreements among coalition parties, while keeping the military confined to the barracks.  Despite its size, Lesotho has an impressive record of governance. In 2008, the country was ranked 12th out of 48 African nations in the Mo Ibrahim Index of Good Governance.  The current resort to closing parliament –rather than calling for mediation by parliamentary leaders from other African democracies; the head of the army opting for military fiat and ignoring the African Union’s resolve not to tolerate authority grabbed by military violence; the coalition partner – himself a former prime minister – choosing a vote of no confidence, thereby, a maximum measure for which the young democratic culture was too fragile to cope with in a creative manner, all could add up to a steep decline in the Mo Ibrahim Index.
Lesotho’s population is 99.7 % Basotho; 45% each being Protestants and Catholics. It, thereby, escapes the two fault lines that have tripped other countries. For over sixty years hundreds of thousands of her able-bodied people exported their labour power to mine-owners and farmers in the days of apartheid South Africa, earning low wages which left its economy still dominated by 75 percent of its population living in poverty-income rural areas. Lesotho’s main exports are fresh water and uncut diamonds.  
The army may have rattled the Prime Minister in a show of strength, but it sends the wrong signal regarding the stability of the country, which could frighten investors away and further weaken the economy.
The peace deal Zuma and SADC brokered should be allowed to endure for a little while to enable normalcy to return to the country.  A longer term solution would be an agreement by all parties to the dissolution of parliament and for general elections.