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President Mugabe

Farirai Machivenyika in GWERU
SADC will convene an extraordinary Summit in South Africa to discuss the situation in Lesotho next Wednesday following an attempted coup in that country last month.
President Mugabe, who is the Sadc chairman, revealed this while addressing chiefs attending the annual chiefs’ conference at Zanu-PF’s Convention Centre in Gweru yesterday.

“Tinotenda nerukudzo rwamatipa rwekuti takapihwa huchairmanship hweSadc. Ehe, tinobatsirana muSadc kuti tive nerunyararo. Iye zvino tine nyaya yeLesotho and musi weChitatu tinenge tichienda tinonosangana ku- South Africa tichitaura nenyaya yacho (We thank you for the respect you have bestowed on us over our chairmanship of Sadc.

“Yes, we work as a bloc in Sadc to ensure peace. We are currently seized with the situation in Lesotho and this Wednesday we will be meeting in South Africa for an extraordinary summit to discuss this issue).

“Kuna commander (Lieutenant-General Tlali Kamoli) wakanzi zviito zvako hazvichaita kuti urambe uri commander we army saka takubvisa muarmy.
“Murawo wavo ikoko hongu Prime Minister (Thomas Thabane, ) akaenda kuna King (Letsie III vakamubvisa muarmy pakunyora asi munhu wacho akanzi huya uzotora tsamba irikumubvisa pabasa kuti hatichakuda iyi letter of discharge zvino iye akaramba hanzi akaronga kuti vamwe vanomutsigira vaende kumakomo hanzi akaisa dzimwe pfuti kumakomo (There is a commander who was asked to step down. According to their law, the Prime Minister went to inform the King and they dismissed the commander from the army in writing.

“They asked him to come and get his letter of discharge and he refused and organised his supporters within the army to retreat with their weapons to the mountains),” President Mugabe said.

He said the Sadc Troika commanders (Zimbabwe, Namibia and South Africa) tasked to deal with the matter in Lesotho visited the country and said the matter had been resolved.

“Vakamboenda ikoko zvikanzi vabvumirana saka hameno kuti chanetsa chii tichanzwa paweekend ipapa kuti situation yanaka here kana kuti haisati yanaka saka ndokwatiri kutyira chete (The Troika went to Lesotho and said they had resolved their issues and we do not know what is wrong now. We will monitor the situation over the weekend, that is the only trouble spot),” he said.

President Mugabe also dispatched Foreign Affairs Minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi and Defence Forces Minister Dr Sydney Sekeramayi to Lesotho when reports of the coup attempt emerged.

Mr Thabane fled his country to South Africa last month when the coup attempt occurred fearing for his safety but has since returned home.
Since independence from Britain in 1966, Lesotho has undergone a number of disturbances.

In 1998 at least 58 locals and eight South African soldiers died and parts of Maseru were damaged during a political stand-off and subsequent fighting.