{"id":16175,"date":"2014-09-04T04:59:52","date_gmt":"2014-09-04T04:59:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/lesotho-pm-thabane-returns-home-after-fleeing\/"},"modified":"2014-09-04T04:59:42","modified_gmt":"2014-09-04T04:59:42","slug":"lesotho-pm-thabane-returns-home-after-fleeing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/lesotho-pm-thabane-returns-home-after-fleeing\/","title":{"rendered":"Lesotho PM Thabane Returns Home After Fleeing"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/figure>\n

{{Lesotho’s Prime Minister Thomas Thabane has returned home after fleeing the mountain kingdom to neighbouring South Africa on Saturday.}}<\/p>\n

At the time he said the military had staged a coup – a charge it denied.<\/p>\n

Regional leaders rejected his call for troops to be deployed to restore order.<\/p>\n

The unrest is thought to be linked to a struggle between Mr Thabane, reportedly supported by the police, and Deputy Prime Minister Mothetjoa Metsing, said to have the loyalty of the army.<\/p>\n

Mr Thabane has headed a unity government since elections in May 2012, but suspended parliament sessions in June to avoid a vote of no confidence amid feuding in his coalition.<\/p>\n

Lesotho, which is surrounded by South Africa, has experienced several coups since independence in 1966.<\/p>\n

Audience with the king<\/p>\n

A source in Maseru told reporters that Mr Thabane and Mr Metsing were escorted into the capital by South African police.<\/p>\n

It is reported to be calm in the city, with business continuing as usual.<\/p>\n

South African police are guarding state house, the prime minister’s official residence, and Mr Metsing’s home, the source said.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Thabane and his deputies are due to appear before King Letsie III later to present a report about meetings held on Sunday and Monday in South Africa to resolve the crisis.<\/p>\n

South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma held separate talks, under the auspices of the South African Development Community (Sadc) regional bloc, with Mr Tabane and Mr Metsing.<\/p>\n

Afterwards, Sadc said it would send an observer team to Lesotho and that the two leaders agreed to “clear timetables” that would lead to the restoration of parliament.<\/p>\n

Conflict broke out on Saturday morning with soldiers involved in an exchange of fire outside two police stations.<\/p>\n

One police officer was killed and four wounded after the military intervened, police say.<\/p>\n

Radio broadcasts were jammed and telephone lines were out of order for several hours on Saturday.<\/p>\n

A military spokesman had said the army had received intelligence that the police were going to arm factions ahead of a march by Mr Metsing’s Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD) to protest about the closing of parliament.<\/p>\n

Mr Thabane said the actions of the army amounted to a coup and rendered his government dysfunctional.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{{Lesotho’s Prime Minister Thomas Thabane has returned home after fleeing the mountain kingdom to neighbouring South Africa on Saturday.}} At the time he said the military had staged a coup – a charge it denied. Regional leaders rejected his call for troops to be deployed to restore order. The unrest is thought to be linked […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2000053835,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[100],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-16175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-africa","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":{"id":2000053835,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton16175.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton16175.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton16175.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton16175.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton16175.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton16175.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16175\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000053835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16175"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=16175"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=16175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}