Lesotho

While the police continue to search for the current wife of Lesotho’s head of government, Tom Thabane, in connection with the murder of his former wife, Thabane has announced that he is to quit office on a date still to be announced. Thabane, whose ruling All Basotho Convention is riven with splits, is also of interest to the police, who say that Thabane’s personal phone was used at the scene of his second wife’s murder. His current wife disappeared when police said they wanted her for questioning.

The Lesotho courts, already embroiled in a scandal-ridden series of cases involving the Acting Chief Justice, the Prime Minister and others, have now had to intervene in what has been held to be the unlawful action of the Minister of Local Government and Chieftainship. At the end of July,  Litsoane Litsoane disbanded the Maseru City Council’s tender board, citing certain ‘irregularities’.

Lesotho’s current political bosses – and the country’s economy – have been dealt a new blow. The high court of Lesotho, sitting as a constitutional court, has ruled that plans for dealing with repayment of generous government-guaranteed loans made to two categories of officials, are discriminatory and unconstitutional. Everyone who was given such a loan will now have to be treated in the same way, with the government paying all remaining loans back to the bank, in full.