LESOTHO'S Prime Minister Thomas Thabane has returned to state house in the capital Maseru, four days after he fled to South Africa following an apparent bid by the military to oust him.
Mr Thabane met with South Africa's President Jacob Zuma and security chiefs from neighbouring countries this week in an effort to end a political crisis in the mountain kingdom.
South African police had escorted him home afterwards, said Samonyane Ntsekele, an advisor to Mr Thabane.
"He's in state house. He's the one in charge. South African police are with him and he is well secured," Mr Ntsekele aid.
"He saw the king today and we hope they will work together as a team. I don't know what has been agreed."
Lesotho, a mountainous state of two million people encircled entirely by South Africa, has a parliamentary democratic government and the king serves largely a ceremonial role.
Mr Thabane fled to South Africa early on Saturday, hours before the army surrounded his residence and overran police stations in Maseru in what the prime minister called a coup.
Lesotho's army said it had not tried to oust Mr Thabane but rather moved against police suspected of planning to arm a political faction. One policeman was shot dead and four others wounded.
The unrest stems from a power struggle between Mr Thabane, who is supported by the police, and Deputy Prime Minister Mothetjoa Metsing, who has the loyalty of the army.
Tension has risen since Mr Thabane, who has accused Mr Metsing of orchestrating the coup, suspended parliament in June amid feuding in the two-year-old governing coalition.
Mr Thabane said at the weekend he had fired the army commander, Lieutenant-General Kennedy Tlali Kamoli, and appointed Brigadier Maaparankoe Mahao to replace him. But Mr Kamoli has not said publicly that he will stand down.
Lesotho has suffered several coups since independence from Britain in 1966 including one in 1998 in which dozens died.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article