Thomas Thabane, the Prime Minister of Lesotho, a small African country south of the continent, has been unable to resist the shadow of the murder of his ex-wife Lipolelo. After enormous pressure, he has announced that he will leave the position he has held since 2012, without specifying the date on which he will do so, although it is expected that it will be in July. The criminal plot includes his current wife Maesaiah, who was accused three months ago of orchestrating the murder. The courts have yet to decide whether Thomas Thabane can be prosecuted while he is Prime Minister.
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It was two days before Thabane took office after his re-election in June 2017, when the violent death of the first lady shook this country. She was riddled with bullets inside a car in which she was traveling with a friend. By then Thomas Thabane, who is 80, already had a relationship with Maesaiah, 42, with whom he would end up marrying at the end of that same summer. The images of the current presidential couple sitting in the front row at Lipolelo's funeral on a hot July day take on new meaning.
This is a story in which power, violence and impunity are mixed. The relevance of those involved underscores one of the greatest obstacles to development in the region: crime. The Prime Minister and the murdered woman have been separated since 2012 and since then have been involved in an endless divorce process. Lipolelo was not resigned to losing her privileged position as first lady, a position that Maesaiah longed for, now prosecuted for her murder. In 2015, a court guaranteed that Lipolelo could keep all the benefits of being a first lady until the divorce was effective.
From the beginning, the police suspected the presidential couple of involvement in the murder. Telephone records confirmed his line of investigation and this January they issued an arrest warrant for Maesaiah, the current first lady, on suspicion that he had hired a hitman. However, she never appeared for questioning and the Prime Minister assured that he did not know where his wife was. She reappeared two weeks later and claimed that she had had to travel to South Africa for medical reasons. They both denied involvement in the crime to the police.
In this plot, there is no lack of suspicions of threats and persecution of anyone who could testify in the case against the Thabanes. The director of Amnesty International in the south of the continent, Deprose Muchena, demanded, as soon as the allegations were known, full protection for the witnesses. “There have already been deaths in mysterious circumstances, and other key people have fled the country after receiving threats. The authorities have not provided them with adequate protection, despite the fact that the police know that their lives are in danger, "he said.
In an exclusive information revealed by Reuters this Thursday, a friend of the deceased assures that the same day that Lipolelo was murdered, she had said that she was willing to yield and sign the divorce papers.
Crime and corruption, brake on development
Lesotho became independent from the United Kingdom in 1966. That same year Thomas Thabane was elected senator and has since swarmed around different government structures and held ministerial positions, until 2012 when he was elected prime minister for the first time. The country has endured four military coups since independence.
There have already been deaths in mysterious circumstances, and other key people have fled the country after receiving threats
According to the index prepared by Transparency International in which it classifies the level of corruption in 180 countries, Lesotho has gone from ranking 55 in 2014 to 85 in 2019. Its citizens give their institutions a score of 4 out of 10. Moletsane Monyake , a professor at the University of Lesotho, began an analysis article on the specialized website Democracy in Africa: “Lesotho is known for the murder and / or exile of prominent figures, as well as for interference by the security forces in political affairs and vice versa. This is the first time in the country's history that an acting prime minister has had to attend a court session to face criminal charges. It is an important matter: on the one hand because of what it implies for good governance practices, and on the other because it has been seen that the Army has remained in the barracks and allowed the law to take its course. ” The academic assures that the increasing levels of "corruption, impunity and inequality" has made citizens increasingly demand impartiality.
The coronavirus crisis has postponed the trial indefinitely, despite the fact that the country is the only one on the continent that has no confirmed cases. We will have to wait for the pandemic to pass to know the truth. At the moment, the Prime Minister has his and he told the local Lesotho Times newspaper : "I have not committed any crime. Write (in your newspaper) that I have said that there is not a single person who is afraid of this world".
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