Shooting jolts Lesotho

Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa yesterday condemned a shooting in Lesotho just outside the gates of the presidential palace in which two soldiers were wounded and a private security guard was killed.

Lesotho has brought forward its national elections scheduled for 2017 by two years in a deal brokered by the Southern African Development Community to try to resolve political tensions after an attempted coup in August that forced Prime Minister Tom Thabane to briefly seek refuge in South Africa.

Ramaphosa played a key part in the SADC election negotiations.

Ramaphosa's spokesman, Ronnie Mamoepa, said the deputy president was concerned about the latest incident but was confident that the centre will hold.

Mamoepa said Ramaphosa expressed confidence in the SADC mission. "The facilitator [Ramaphosa] is confident that preparations for the holding of Lesotho's elections on February 28 remained on course."

Lesotho army spokesman Ntlele Ntoi said the shootout on Sunday afternoon occurred when two of Thabane's former bodyguards refused to stop at a security checkpoint and started shooting at the Lesotho Defence Force soldiers controlling access to the offices of the SADC mission in Lesotho.

"The LDF personnel returned fire and the assailants fled into a nearby building in which one private security guard lost his life during the exchange of fire," Ntoi said.

A senior adviser to Thabane said the two wounded soldiers had tipped off the prime minister about the August coup attempt in which the military attacked several police installations and the prime minister's residence, killing a police officer.

The adviser, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: "The two [soldiers] went against their own men that day, absolutely."

His comments appear to back speculation that Sunday's assault was linked to the failed coup.

Thabane accused Deputy Prime Minister Mothetjoa Metsing of helping to plan the coup attempt.

Metsing and the army denied the allegation.

The failed coup exposed friction between the Lesotho military and the police, pushing the country to the brink of a full-blown conflict.

Though tensions have eased, the police say they are still investigating recent claims that foreign "mercenaries" entered Lesotho to assassinate Thabane and other leaders.

The army is still seen by many in Lesotho as being behind the August coup attempt.