Issued by: Office of the Executive Deputy President
The Communications Unit in the Office of the Deputy President wishes to correct certain factual inaccuracies regarding media reports which appeared in the Star edition of Thursday 15 October 1998.
The reports suggests that the meeting between Lesotho's ruling party and opposition parties held under the auspices of SADC on Wednesday 14 October, had according to "unconfirmed reports - was at 5pm still stuck on item one of the agenda: whether South Africa's Minister of Safety and Security, sydney Mufamadi, should continue to chair the talks".
"The sticking issue - who should rule Lesotho until the new general election - is reportedly far from resolved".
We must point out that the issue of the chairpersonship of the meeting was never on the agenda of the meeting held on Wednesday 14 October. There was only one item on the agenda, which was outstanding from the October 2 meeting (which agreed to the holding of fresh elections), and that is the issue of an interim mechanism charged with the responsibility of creating a climate conductive for the holding of fresh elections.
The Wednesday meeting was preceded by a meeting held in Pretoria wherein Lesotho's political parties had put their proposals for an interim mechanism for the attention of SADC. It was in this meeting with representatives of both sides of the political divide in Lesotho namely Vincent Malebo and Tom Thabane indicated their willingness to adopt the SADC proposals on interim mechanism as a "fall back position".
In the Wednesday meeting, although the parties were allowed to submit their competing proposals for this interim mechanism, these proposals were not a subject of discussion. What remained on the agenda to which Lesotho's political parties responded to was the SADC proposal.
We reiterate our view that substantial progress has been made in the Wednesday meeting with the parties agreeing to the establishment of a structure that will facilitate the preparations for and the holding of elections in conjunction with both the legislative and executive structures, holding the parties agreed to discuss their response to the SADC proposal.
Issued by Communications Division Office of Deputy President, Thabo Mbeki for more info contact Ronnie Mamoepa at 082-990-4853
15 October 1998.