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Maliehe\u2019s offence was publicly to attack Thabane\u2019s leadership, accusing him of allowing his much younger, ambitious wife, Maesaiah Thabane, to meddle in the affairs of state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are also growing concerns in the ABC and government that Thabane\u2019s age \u2013 he is 79 \u2013 is starting to affect his performance. He is seen as being increasingly forgetful and reliant on his wife and ABC secretary general Samonyane Ntsekele, who stands next to him as his prompt whenever he delivers public speeches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Controversy also surrounds Thabane\u2019s relationship with Chinese-born entrepreneur Yan (\u201cJohn\u201d) Xie, whom he appointed last year as \u201chead of special projects and Prime Minister\u2019s special envoy and adviser on China\/Asia trade networks\u201d, shortly after he took power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Xie, a naturalised Mosotho, is seen as angling to monopolise Lesotho\u2019s wool and mohair industry. His response to this allegation is now known, as he never speaks to the media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During the conference Thabane himself admitted there were serious problems in the ABC. He was quoted by Lesotho\u2019s Sunday Express<\/em> as saying he hoped the party would grow so that it won enough seats to govern on its own, while adding that \u201cthis would not be possible if the challenges facing the party are not immediately addressed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Said political activist and commentator Ramahooana Matlosa: \u201cThe coalition government is already divided; they cannot speak with one voice. When things like this [heckling at the conference] happen in the major coalition member, it exposes and weakens the government itself.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n ABC stalwart Montoeli Masoetsa told amaBhungane that the ABC violated its own constitution by suspending Maliehe without taking him through a disciplinary hearing and not allowing the conference to rule on his appeal against the suspension.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s being run by people who are pushing their interests instead of the party\u2019s, indicating that the ABC has an incompetent leader. The same person is the leader of the coalition government and prime minister. If there is instability in the ABC, there is obviously instability in government,\u201d Masoetsa said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The conference should have been used to determine whether ABC was sinking or sailing, he said, \u201cbut was clouded by disorderly behaviour, even by the NEC itself\u201d. The party was heading for a split if the NEC failed to call another pow-wow to iron out issues before the elective conference next year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Political scientist Fako Likoti pointed out that Maliehe was one of the founders of the ABC, alongside Thabane. \u201cTheir battle for power cannot be underestimated; it may lead to a serious split. It\u2019s clear the ABC\u2019s supporters are not happy with Ntate Thabane and that is worrying for the government.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n With 51 seats in Lesotho\u2019s 120-member parliament, the ABC is the major coalition partner in what is popularly known as \u201cthe four-by-four\u201d government. But it needs the Alliance of Democrats (AD \u2013 11 seats), the Basotho National Party (BNP \u2013 five seats) and Reformed Congress of Lesotho (one seat) to give it an overall majority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One year after the June 23 2017 snap election that installed Thabane, there are emerging tensions between his partners that he no longer seems able to contain. In particular, the AD\u2019s Monyane Moleleki, the deputy prime minister, is said to be unhappy with Thabane\u2019s alleged interference in his portfolio and antagonistic towards the smaller BNP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This was highlighted recently when Moleleki publicly raised the issue of the killing of opposition activists under a BNP government in the 1970s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Coalition governments have a shaky track record in Lesotho: the first two, from 2012 to 2015, collapsed midway through their terms because of internal dissension.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The most recent failure was the government of Thabane\u2019s arch-rival, Pakalitha Mosisili, whose seven-party coalition, cobbled together after the February 2015 snap election, was dethroned in a no-confidence vote in parliament last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mosisili\u2019s problem was twofold. His party, the Democratic Congress, had fewer seats than the combined parliamentary representation of his coalition partners, making his government inherently unstable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The particular spark for the vote of confidence, however, was the growing violence and lawlessness of the Lesotho Defence Force under General Tlali Kamoli, with whom Mosisili had a close alliance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thabane came in on a wave of popular support from voters sick and tired of the army\u2019s excesses \u2013 but this has been swiftly eroded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Maliehe may be suspended, but he remains in parliament as the popular MP for the large northern constituencey of Botha-Bothe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lesotho\u2019s constituency system means that he can only be removed by voters. And he is no longer subject to the collective discipline of the Cabinet. Thabane has departed from The Godfather\u2019s famous advice: \u201cKeep your friends close, but your enemies closer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Maliehe has vowed to fight Thabane until the latter loses the party leadership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In an interview with amaBhungane, he said that the ABC conference signalled the growing intolerance of ABC supporters towards the Premier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNtate Thabane has lost his grip on leadership \u2013 the ABC supporters have seen that and they are not happy with him. The conference was a sign that he is losing the battle,\u201d Maliehe said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHe almost walked out because delegates interrupted him with points of order about the executive\u2019s decision to let the conference be chaired by my deputy (Kemiso Mosenene) instead of me. The supporters were also not happy that I was unfairly suspended.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n He said he had heard that Thabane \u201cis making desperate moves to court Mosisili and [Mothetjoa] Metsing [deputy prime minister under Mosisili] to arrange for a new coalition government. I don\u2019t have details, but I hear the leaders met at State House over the weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, he had also heard that both Metsing and Mosisili were opposed to any union. Metsing\u2019s spokesperson Teboho Sekata, denied any meeting, pointing out that Metsing was still in exile in South Africa after the fall of Mosisili\u2019s government last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Maliehe confirmed that he had failed to show up at the disciplinary hearing three days before the conference, but said he would have explained his absence if he had been allowed to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt makes no sense that after I failed to appear, the panel recommended there and then that I should be suspended; and then, without notice, the NEC reaches a decision the next day to suspend me; and the secretary general writes the suspension letter the day after that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThings were done in a rush because there was a motive behind it,\u201d Maliehe charged. \u201cWhat Thabane and the current NEC want is to remove me altogether from the leadership structures before next year\u2019s elective conference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThey have their own candidate in mind, the current acting deputy leader [Public Works and Transport Minister Prince Maliehe],\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Maliehe said he had appealed against his suspension, which he said \u201ccan only be validated if endorsed by a conference\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Other than Thabane himself, Maliehe remains the only ABC executive member of the 18 parliamentarians who crossed the floor and joined the party when it was formed on October 13 2006.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Commentators remark that one of Thabane\u2019s weaknesses is that he cannot tolerate criticism or other strong personalities in the top echelons of the ABC, which he tends to regard as his private property.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They believe the ABC could have doubled its parliamentary strength and won the 2017 election outright, if he had not marginalised numerous ABC heavyweights over the years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Likoti, Mosisili\u2019s adviser when he was prime minister, said party heavy-hitters such as Lehlohonolo Tsehlana and Tlali Khasu had moved off to form their own parties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Seabata Motsamai, of the Lesotho Council of Non-Governmental Organisations, said that many party members backed Maliehe but were fearful of crossing Thabane. This further destabilised the party, because it meant that opposition to the leader could not openly expressed and continued to fester.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThese suppressed voices they cannot come out now and stand their ground, so the instability is not going to end. It may even affect the government.,\u201d Motsamai said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thabane is accused in some quarters of \u201closing his leadership grip\u201d because of growing senility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A senior ABC man who knows the Premier well said: \u201cHe forgets things. He forgets even the people closest to him; sometimes he hardly recognises them. He hardly makes sound decisions independently, and to make a logical speech he has to be guided.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thabane has also often been accused of allowing the first lady, Maesaiah to meddle in the affairs of the government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In particular, she is accused of engineering the dismissal of former health minister Nyapane Kaya and former public works minister Lehlohonolo Moramotse. Both the ministers were sent home after a cabinet reshuffle in February, shortly after the premier had announced he intended to fire corrupt officials in government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is no evidence that either minister was involved in corruption. Rumour has that they were fired because they refused to award tenders to friends of the first lady.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Matlosa told amaBhungane the First Lady had been fingered in many controversies relating to government, \u201cincluding Chinese state capture. She is seen as being behind many deals given to Chinese companies by the government of Lesotho.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Maesaiah\u2019s spokesperson, Silas Monyatsi, has repeatedly dismissed these allegations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One sign of Maesaiah\u2019s influence is that she often takes calls from journalists seeking interviews with her husband.<\/p>\n\n\n\n AmaBhungane\u2019s attempts to obtain comment from Thabane and secretary-general Ntsekele this week were unsuccessful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n News analysis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21966,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[86,87],"class_list":["post-6904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories","tag-lesotho","tag-tom-thabane"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6904"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6904\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30436,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6904\/revisions\/30436"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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