SADC to suspend Lesotho
Innocent Selatlhwa | Tuesday January 19, 2016 08:58
As he walked out of the meeting to head to the airport back to Lesotho, Mosisili looked angry, something that raised greater interest among the information-starved contingent of local and international media outside the meeting room.
President Ian Khama, who is also the SADC chairman and was chairing the Troika, also left the meeting venue immediately after. The relief to the frustrated media came from the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) journalists, who were briefed by their country’s delegation, led by President Jacob Zuma.
One SABC reporter told Mmegi that the Double Troika has recommended that Lesotho be suspended from all SADC activities until the situation in the country improved. The Troika is said to have decided that SADC will have to call for an extraordinary summit where all member states will meet to discuss the issue further and decide on it.
The SADC Double Troika is made up of Botswana, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Tanzania and Swaziland.
The Troika also agreed to review the political and security situation in Southern Africa, with focus on the situation in Lesotho. The summit started on Saturday with meetings of senior officials and ministers.
Among the many upheavals that Lesotho had faced in the past year was the assassination of General Maaparankwe Mohau. Mohau was driving from his farm when he was ambushed by no less than 11 heavily armed soldiers armed with AK47s and shot execution style, with his nephews watching the horror from his vehicle.
On June 25, 2015, the SADC established an urgent independent commission of inquiry into the killing of General Mohau. The meeting appointed the Botswana High Court Justice Mpaphi Phumaphi, to chair the Commission of Enquiry on the violence in Lesotho.