Bongiwe Zihlangu
THE highly anticipated second leg of reconciliatory talks between the Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD), All Basotho Convention (ABC) and Basotho National Party (BNP) leaders, which had been scheduled for yesterday, were postponed to today.
The Lesotho Times was told last night that the crucial talks had to be rescheduled to allow LCD leader, Deputy Prime Minister Mothetjoa Metsing, more time to “tie up loose ends” to the draft amendment of the agreement on which the coalition government was founded in June 2012.
The talks, which seek to resolve sharp differences that have emerged between the three governing parties, started on Wednesday last week but were postponed to yesterday.
Among the disagreements between the three parties is Prime Minister and ABC leader, Thomas Thabane’s alleged lack of consultation with his fellow principals, when making key government decisions.
According to the Prime Minister’s Political Advisor, Samonyane Ntsekele, the LCD was tasked with drafting the amendment to the initial agreement, and how the talks should advance and was given more time to work on it, hence the postponement.
“The briefing that I received today is that the LCD leader is expected to bring a proposal of the draft amendment to the table for discussion by the coalition leaders, and was not ready to submit it, hence the postponement,” Mr Ntsekele said.
Mr Ntsekele, who is also the ABC secretary general, added the draft would be subjected to scrutiny by the three leaders and then taken for discussion among the different parties.
“After discussions by the three leaders, the draft amendment will be referred to the leaders’ respective political parties for further deliberations, before it can be considered the final product,” Mr Ntsekele said, before suggesting the Lesotho Times should call BNP leader Thesele ‘Maseribane for more details.
However, Chief ‘Maseribane, who is the coordinator of the Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee (JMIC) and has been overseeing the talks, was singing a completely different tune when the Lesotho Times contacted him last night.
According to Chief ‘Maseribane, the talks were postponed because one of the leaders had to go to South Africa for medical checkup.
“The talks were shifted to tomorrow because one of us had to go for a medical check-up.
“Unfortunately, the check-up fell on the date of the talks and he was not aware of it.
“The talks will continue tomorrow when he is back from his check-up,” Chief ‘Maseribane said, without revealing who, among the leaders, could not be available for yesterday’s meeting.
Meanwhile, the Lesotho Times was, last night, able to establish from highly placed sources within government that it was Dr Thabane who could not be available for the talks as he had travelled to South Africa.
However, it could not be established why the premier had to go to South Africa, and neither was Mr Ntsekele immediately available to shed more light on this development.
“The Prime Minister has travelled out of the country; he is in Johannesburg but is expected back this evening,” one of the sources said.
“He has to be home in time for the Police Training College (PTC) pass-out parade tomorrow (this morning).”
