LESOTHO'S Deputy Prime Minister Mothetjoa Metsing has taken charge of the government after Prime Minister Thomas Thabane fled the country accusing the army of staging a coup.
Mr Thabane, who has been in a fractious coalition government with his political rival Mr Metsing, left for neighbouring South Africa on Saturday after the army surrounded his residence and police stations in Lesotho's capital Maseru and gunshots rang out.
One policeman was shot dead and four others were wounded during the confrontation, according to police senior superintendent Mofokeng Kolo.
The army denied trying to force the prime minister out of power, saying it had moved against police officers suspected of planning to arm a political faction in the small southern African kingdom.
Diplomats in Maseru said the army was largely seen as loyal to the deputy prime minister, while the police force largely supported the prime minister.
Regional power South Africa condemned the army's actions and later invited the deputy prime minister to talks.
Lesotho's Communications Minister Selibe Mochoboroane said: "Constitutionally, in the absence of the prime minister, the deputy prime minister takes the reins.
"The deputy will still oversee other issues that need to be taken care of until the prime minister returns."
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