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Embattled Lesotho Prime Minister to Resign - AFP

VOA News

   The French News Agency,AgenceFrance Presse, says Lesotho Prime Minister
   Thomas Thabane will turn in his resignation on Wednesday.

   AFP says the 80-year-old Thabane revealed in a telephone interview that
   he was stepping down due to his age. He said he will
   informKingLetsieIII, the supreme traditional leader of the small
   southern African country, of his intention to resign.

   Thabane has been mired in a political and legal crisis stemming from
   the murder of his estranged wife,LipoleloThabane, in 2017. The couple
   were going through a bitter divorce when she was shot dead in front of
   her house in the capital Maseru.

   Thabane's current wife,Maesaiah, whom he married a few months
   afterLipolelo'sdeath, is charged with her murder. The prime minister
   has been named as a suspect, but has not been formally charged.

   After ignoring repeated calls for him to resign, Thabane's coalition
   government collapsed Monday, with parliament due to meet next week to
   name a new prime minister. Finance MinisterMoeketsiMajorohas been
   nominated by the rulingAll Basotho Convention to succeedThanbane.

   Thabane's request for immunity from prosecution after leaving office
   was rejected last week by the governing party.

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