Tom Thabane, the Prime Minister of Lesotho, will resign from office by next Friday. This was according to the speaker of the Lesotho Parliament, Sephiri Motanyane.
Thabane had been supported in Parliament by a four-party coalition, consisting of his own All Basotho Convention (ABC), the Alliance of Democrats, the Basotho National Party, and the Reformed Congress of Lesotho. Together the four parties controlled 63 of Lesotho 120 parliamentary seats. However, on Monday it was announced that three of the four parties in the coalition, including Thabane’s ABC, were withdrawing their support from the Prime Minister,
Sam Rapapa, the deputy chairperson of the ABC said that Thabane was now serving in a caretaker capacity and would formally step down on 22 May. Rapapa said that the minister of finance, Moeketsi Majoro, would replace Thabane.
Thabane has been under pressure to resign as the head of government of the Mountain Kingdom for some time, after he and his wife were implicated in the murder of one of his former wives.
This week Lesotho also confirmed its first case of Covid-19, making it one of the last countries in the world to formally have an infection.
Image by WhiskerFlowers from Pixabay