Lesotho’s beleaguered PM Thabane officially resigns

MASERU, Lesotho: Lesotho’s beleaguered prime minister Thomas Thabane resigned on Tuesday, ending a months-long crisis that engulfed the kingdom after he was accused of playing a role in the murder of his estranged wife.

The June 2017 killing sent shockwaves through the tiny landlocked southern African nation, plunging the country into political turmoil and prompting calls for the 80-year-old leader to step down. Thabane and his then wife Lipolelo Thabane, 58, were in the midst of a bitter divorce when she was shot dead outside her home two days before her husband’s inauguration. Police said they found Thabane’s mobile number in communications records from the crime scene. The alleged evidence prompted rivals within and outside Thabane’s party All Basotho Convention (ABC) party, to demand his immediate resignation. On Tuesday he confirmed he was stepping down. “I appear before you to announce that the work that you had assigned me may not be over but the time to retire from the great theatre of action, take leave from public life and office has finally arrived,” he said in a national television address.