AFP/Reuters/Maseru/Pretoria

Lesotho’s exiled prime minister is heading home, an aide told AFP yesterday, as regional mediators sought to reinstall him to power days after an apparent coup.
“We are going home now, most probably we will be in Lesotho tomorrow,” Samonyane Ntsekele, an adviser to Prime Minister Tom Thabane, said from Pretoria, where southern African states brokered a deal to end the crisis.
Thabane had fled across the border to South Africa before dawn on Saturday, as troops attacked key police installations and surrounded his official residence.
The military and a rival political party – the Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD) – have been accused of trying to oust the 75-year-old, a charge they vehemently deny.
South African President Jacob Zuma and representatives from governments in the regional bloc SADC had brought together leaders from Lesotho’s three ruling coalition parties to resolve their differences.
“President Zuma will meet the Lesotho prime minister. It is part of the decision taken by the SADC troika on Sunday,” said Nelson Kgwete, a spokesman for South Africa’s Department for International Relations and Co-operation (DIRCO). “It was resolved that all parties should be consulted to find a peaceful solution.”
According to a joint statement Thabane will now move to end the suspension of parliament, a key demand of rival parties.
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) will also send an observer team to the mountainous African kingdom to monitor political, defence and security developments.
There was no mention of a SADC peacekeeping force, as requested by Thabane.
Thabane will return to a country which for three days appeared to be without a government.
The police force is in disarray after being forcibly disarmed by troops and the military is seemingly beyond political control, leaving ordinary people fearing for the future.
In Maseru, the police commissioner said soldiers had carried out further raids on police installations and even officers’ homes, taking away weapons and uniforms.
Commissioner Khothatso Ts’ooana told Public Choice FM radio station that this meant police would not be able to carry out their normal duties.
Police stations were deserted and some officers had fled over the border into South Africa.
“We don’t know what is happening. They are just fighting for their own things they don’t want to say anything to us,” said Lineo Mattadi, a factory worker.
In an attempt to fill that vacuum, Motloheloa Phooko, a minister from the LCD, raised eyebrows yesterday by saying that he was acting prime minister.
“I am acting prime minister,” the minister said from Maseru, citing “cabinet protocol” for his appointment while the prime minister and deputy prime minister are in South Africa.
Phooko is a member of the LCD – which forms an acrimonious coalition government with Thabane.
The party has denied any role in the alleged coup.
Phooko’s comments are the first indication that a destabilising power vacuum seen since military action early on Saturday is being filled.
Deputy Prime Minister Mothetjoa Metsing, also of the LCD, is also in South Africa for talks, leaving Lesotho’s citizens unclear who is in charge.
The political situation may be fraught, but Thabane’s biggest task may be to end doubts about who controls the army.
Intelligence sources have claimed that Lieutenant-General Tlali Kamoli, commander of the Lesotho Defence Forces, orchestrated the coup when ordered by Thabane to relinquish his command.
Kamoli was to be replaced by Lieutenant-General Maaparankoe Mahao, who fled the country on Saturday after a pre-dawn assassination attempt.
His home was sprayed with bullets, forcing his wife and three young sons to hide, terrified for their lives during the 30-minute ordeal.
Yesterday military spokesman major Ntlele Ntoi insisted that there was no doubt who was in command of the armed forces.
“Lieutenant-General Tlali Kamoli is the one who is in charge,” he said categorically, stating that Mahao faces a court martial for conduct unbecoming an officer.
Speaking in Pretoria, Mahao labelled Kamoli a “renegade general”. “On the ground we have a situation that we have a renegade general who is refusing to step down,” he said.
When asked who is in charge of the military, Phooko said “that is a difficult question”.
Mahao claimed that Kamoli was reluctant to relinquish his post for fear of prosecution.
“There are a number of criminal acts conducted by sections under his command. He is afraid that when he is removed from office, the forces of justice will come into effect,” he told AFP.
Mahao claimed that soldiers had also sought to seize police files relating to the deputy prime minister, the LCD’s Metsing. “The deputy prime minister is implicated in corruption charges. He is under investigation for that.”