Top Lesotho minister quits
2006-10-09 13:37
Maseru - A leading member of Lesotho's cabinet resigned on Monday and announced plans for a new party to challenge the Lesotho Congress for Democracy's (LCD) 10-year grip on power in elections next year.
Science and communications minister Tom Thabane, an ex-foreign minister who was regarded as number three in Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili's regime, said the government of the tiny southern African kingdom had lost its way.
He said; "I've decided to resign from this government because it has lost vision, direction and the mandate given to it by the people.
"I am planning to form a new party with other people, whose names I will disclose at a press conference later today."
Thabane 'sidelined in govt reshuffle'
Thabane's resignation came after he led a group of 16 LCD parliamentarians in a boycott of a special leadership conference convened by Mosisili on Sunday.
If all the other LCD rebels were to join Thabane's new party, it would become the largest opposition grouping in the 120-seat legislature. There were eight other opposition parties represented in parliament.
Thabane had been seen as the heir apparent to Mosisili while serving as foreign minister, but was sidelined in a recent government reshuffle.
His replacement at the foreign ministry, Monyane Moleleki, was now regarded as the most likely successor to Mosisili as leader of the landlocked mountainous kingdom, which was completely surrounded by South Africa.
The 61-year-old Mosisili, who had been prime minister since 1998, had been expected to stand down before the next general elections, but he later decided to stand for re-election as LCD chief, winning comfortably in January.
General elections were expected to take place in about six months' time although no date had yet been set.