Lesotho PM survives bid to remove him from office

JOHANNESBURG

Lesotho’s Prime Minister Thomas Thabane survived from being voted out of office Friday after a faction from his party was supported by the opposition in parliament, local media reported.

A faction consisting of 33 lawmakers who broke away from Thabane’s All Basotho Convention (ABC) were supported by the opposition Democratic Congress with 26 votes, falling short of 1 vote to get the required 61, according to a report by South African news site EWN.

Thabane, 80, has been under pressure to step down over accusations of involvement in the June 2017 murder of his 58-year-old estranged wife Lipolelo Thabane.

Despite initially resisting calls to leave office and recently demanding immunity from prosecution as a precondition for relinquishing power, Thabane now says he will resign voluntarily in July due to old age although his official term ends in 2022.

But his opponents including some from his own party want him to resign immediately.

Local media claimed on Friday that seven other opposition parties have expressed willingness to join Thabane’s breakaway faction and the opposition Democratic Congress to remove the premier next week.

Earlier this year, Maesaiah Thabane, 42, the prime minister’s current wife, was formally charged with Lipolelo Thabane’s murder.

Thabane and Lipolelo separated in 2012 and their divorce proceedings were ongoing when she was killed.

She was shot dead near her home in the capital Maseru in June 2017, just two days before Thabane’s inauguration as prime minister.