Cyril Ramaphosa attended the signing of an electoral pledge in Lesotho in December last year. Political parties in Lesotho promised to put aside their differences to ensure a safe and fair general elections in 2015.

Lesotho experienced an attempted coup by the military in August last year and prime minister Thomas Thabane sought asylum in South Africa. The Southern African Development Community had to step in and take charge of the situation.

During the second week of December the country’s security forces signed a Maseru Security Accord and an Memorandum of Understanding, pledging to refrain from violence in the upcoming elections.

Ramaphosa extended South Africa’s well wishes to all the political parties that will participate in the Lesotho general elections on 28 February 2015. For more on the political situation in countries in Southern Africa, have a look at Hussein Solomon’s Against All Odds: Opposition Political Parties in Southern Africa.

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The pledge was a commitment by the parties to help create a climate conducive for the holding of elections scheduled for February 28 next year. This was proclaimed by King Letsie III and gazetted on December 8, 2014.

A decision to hold elections next year was made by the Maseru Facilitation Declaration, which had already been signed by all the parties.

This was after the Southern African Development Community intervened in Lesotho following an attempted coup by the military on August 30, which resulted in Lesotho’s Prime Minister Thomas Thabane fleeing to South Africa, and its parliament being closed.

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Book details

• Against All Odds: Opposition Political Parties in Southern Africa edited by Hussein Solomon
  EAN: 9780620476003
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