Politics

New Lesotho PM, Matekane, shuns former ruling party, forms coalition government with ‘smaller’ parties

Published

2 years ago

October 12, 2022

Newly elected Lesotho Prime Minister, Sam Matekane, has formed a three-party coalition government headed by his Revolution for Prosperity Party, with two ‘smaller’ parties, Alliance of Democrats and the Movement for Economic Change.

Together, the two parties won nine in the election but according to Matekane, they were picked based on their integrity and manifestos.

There was no place for the outgoing ruling party, the All Basotho Convention, which he defeated in the parliamentary elections held on Friday.

While announcing the three-party coalition at a press conference in the capital Maseru on Tuesday shortly after he was declared winner by the electoral body, the 64-year-old billionaire businessman-turned-politician said his party will team up with two smaller parties to secure a parliamentary majority needed to form a government.

Matekane’s RP party which was only launched in March this year, had defied all odds when it won 56 of the legislature’s 120 seats in election, which was just five shy of the 61-seat threshold required for any party to form a government on its own.

Going by the constitution of the southern African country, that meant he must form a coalition government with parties of his choice and he decided to go with the so-called small parties, shunning the ABC which had been in power since 2017.

Matekane said he chose the two parties because they share the same vision of cutting down on government expenditure and improving the delivery of government services to Lesotho’s population.

Though Matekane is a newcomer to politics, political analysts in the country say he is in good company as leaders of the two partner parties bring adequate experience in government.

The Alliance for Democracy leader, Monyane Moleleki, had served as deputy prime minister from June 2017 to May 2020, while the leader of the Movement for Economic Change, Selibe Mochoboroane, was development planning minister in the outgoing ABC-led government.

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Politics

Burkina Faso investigating reports of northern killings

Published

7 hours ago

April 28, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

A government spokesman has revealed that Burkina Faso is looking into reports that 223 people were killed by the Burkinabe army in two villages in the north in February.

The killing was first reported by the Human Rights Watch (HRW), causing a rift between the junta-led West African state and some foreign media that published the report. The HRW report released on Thursday said that the military had executed residents of Nodin and Soro, including at least 56 children, as part of a campaign against civilians suspected of working with jihadist terrorists. The report was based on interviews with witnesses, members of civil society, and other groups.

Rimtalba Jean Emmanuel Ouedraogo, a spokesman for the government, said that HRW’s claims were “peremptory” and that the junta was not unwilling to look into the claimed crimes.

“An investigation has been launched into the killings in Nodin and Soro,” Ouedraogo said in a late-evening statement, quoting a statement from a regional prosecutor on March 1.

Since Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger’s militaries took over in a series of coups from 2020 to 2023, violence in the area has gotten worse. This is because of the ten-year fight with Islamist groups related to Al Qaeda and Islamic State.

Attacks on Burkina Faso got much worse in 2023, with more than 8,000 people killed, according to the U.S.-based crisis-monitoring group ACLED.

Politics

S’Africa lengthens troop deployment in Mozambique, Congo DR

Published

3 days ago

April 26, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

President Cyril Ramaphosa said in a speech that South Africa’s military would keep sending troops to Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which are both in the middle of wars.

The extension will leave 1,198 members of the South African National Defense Force (SANDF) in eastern Congo for an unknown amount of time. They are there as part of a United Nations peacekeeping force helping Congo fight rebel groups.

The statement also said that 1,495 members of the SANDF would keep working in Mozambique, where they have been since 2021 helping the government fight dangerous extremism in the north.

After two SANDF troops were killed and three were hurt by a mortar bomb in Congo in February, South Africa’s military operations abroad have been looked at more closely at home this year.

Meanwhile, the major opposition party in South Africa, the Democratic Alliance, said that Ramaphosa sent troops into a war zone without being ready.
Under the supervision of the UN, the SANDF has taken on many dangerous and difficult peacekeeping tasks over the years to help war-torn African countries stay stable and peaceful.

In 2003, South Africa was one of the first countries to send troops to Burundi to help the peace process. During the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) peacekeeping mission in 2000, the SANDF led attempts to stabilize the country’s politics, rebuild and improve infrastructure, and train DRC troops.