SADC talks underway to broker peace deal in Lesotho

Monday, September 15, 2014

Pretoria - An emergency meeting of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) regional leaders, which is discussing the pressing political and security issues in Lesotho and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), is currently underway in Pretoria.

President Jacob Zuma, as the Chairperson of the SADC Organ on Politics and Defence, called the one-day summit which is being attended by Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and Botswana President Ian Khama.

Both Lesotho's Prime Minister Thomas Thabane and his Deputy Mothetjoa Metsing, as well as representatives from Malawi, Namibia, Mozambique are also attending the summit.

Lesotho's political and security situation remains on a knife's edge since the political disagreements by rival factions which triggered an aborted coup on August 30.

The meeting also comes after Thabane did not meet last Friday’s deadline to reopen Parliament after rival political dealers deadlocked over the implementation of the SADC peace deal.

SADC sees the re-opening of Parliament as a critical step towards restoring peace and stability in Lesotho.  

Thabane suspended the Parliament in June in an attempt to avoid a vote of no confidence that was pushed by his coalition partners.

The suspension, along with the dismissal of army Chief Lieutenant General Tlali Kamoli, was believed to be among the factors that triggered an attempted coup late last month.

In his short opening remarks at the summit on Monday night, President Jacob Zuma - who has also been trying to broker a peace deal between Lesotho's warring factions - said they wanted the country to return to normality as soon as possible.

“We are very confident that the troika summit will move forward a number of issues regarding the challenges in the Kingdom of Lesotho,” said President Zuma.

He has rejected calls for military intervention and has instead pushed for a political solution.

President Zuma has held meetings with key role payers in Lesotho in recent weeks. This includes a meeting with the coalition leaders on 1 September in Pretoria as well as the a visit to Lesotho last Tuesday trying to persuade Thabane and his chief political rival and coalition partner, Metsing, to resolve their power struggle.

With the emergency meeting, Pretoria is hoping for more high –level support in the mediation efforts and to put more pressure on the Lesotho political heads to come to an agreement.

Lesotho’s stability is imperative to not only to South Africa but to neighbouring countries like Zimbabwe, Botswana, Mozambique and Namibia as it’s instability would automatically spill over to them.

Already poverty is deep and widespread, in Lesotho with South Africa providing employment to thousands of Basotho people.

The stalled DRC peace process will also come under the spotlight during the summit.

Concerns still remain over the slow disarmament and demobilisation of members of the defeated M23 rebel group which have been operating in the North-Kivu Region of that country.

The DRC government signed a peace deal with the M23 rebel movement last month in the presence of regional leaders in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.

Despite this, clashes are still reported.  

According to President Zuma , the summit will receive a updated report on the situation in both DRC and Lesotho before mapping a way forward.  

The troika will issue a communique after their meeting which is likely to go into midnight. –SAnews.gov.za