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Pretoria – South Africa hosted an emergency meeting of regional leaders to negotiate a peace deal for Lesotho on Monday, following an attempted coup and stalled peace talks between deadlocked political parties.

South African President Jacob Zuma and Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe — chairman of the 15-member Southern African Development Community (SADC) — will sit down with Lesotho’s leaders to hash out a solution after rival party leaders failed to patch up their differences.

“For now we are very confident that this summit will help us to move forward on a number of issues,” said Zuma, opening the meeting.

“One of the current issues of course is the current situation in the kingdom of Lesotho,” he said, voicing optimism for a resolution.

“Part of the reason I am saying we are optimistic,” says Zuma, “is because we want Lesotho to get back to normalcy as soon as possible.”

On August 30, an attempted coup by renegade general Tlali Kamoli saw the military assault several police stations, prompting the prime minister to flee the country.

Prime Minister Tom Thabane has since returned, protected by South African guards, but a Pretoria-brokered peace deal quickly disintegrated after he refused to reopen parliament.

Reopening the legislature — which was shuttered in June — is seen as a key step toward restoring normality in the tiny mountainous state.

In Maseru, the political crisis appears to be intensifying.

A coalition of opposition parties has joined forces and called on the ruling tripartite coalition to reopen parliament, which is likely to result in an immediate vote of no-confidence for Thabane. – AFP

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