Lesotho’s New PM Names Cabinet Members

Posted June 15th, 2012 at 8:45 pm (UTC-5)
Leave a comment

Lesotho's new Prime Minister Thomas Thabane has selected his cabinet to lead the tiny African kingdom during its first peaceful transition.

The new government was announced Friday.

Mr. Thabane's coalition defeated longtime leader Pakalitha Mosisili in last month's parliamentary election.

His All Basotho Convention party teamed up with the Lesotho Congress for Democracy and Thesele Maseribane's Basotho National Party to oust Mr. Mosisili after the May 29 legislative polls.

The French news agency reports that the new cabinet includes former youth opposition leader Maseribane as new minister of gender and sports.

The leader of the BNP is known for his fierce activism after the disputed 1998 election. A violent opposition reaction to Mosisili's victory in the 1998 polls prompted military intervention from South Africa to restore order.

AFP also says that Timothy Thahane, former finance minister and once a World Bank official, has been named energy minister.

Lesotho is a tiny mountain nation completely surrounded and dependent on South Africa.

Since independence from Britain in 1966, Lesotho has experienced several military coups.