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Lesotho's New PM Has High Hopes - and Higher Stakes

Anita Powell

   JOHANNESBURG - Hopes are high across politically fractious Lesotho as
   Moeketsi Majoro, the nation's finance minister, prepares to become
   prime minister.

   His swearing in, scheduled for Wednesday, comes after two years of
   bitter political squabbles in the tiny mountain kingdom surrounded on
   all sides by South Africa.

   "I think he is a good guy," politician Motlalentoa Letsosa, deputy
   leader of the Democratic Congress, the main opposition party, told VOA
   via WhatsApp. "He has been in the government administration for quite a
   long time. He was once the principal secretary for the same ministry of
   finance, where he is now the minister. He was also the minister of
   development and planning, and now he is going to be the prime minister.

   "And remember, he worked at IMF for quite a long time. So he's a
   gentleman who is familiar with the Lesotho political landscape and
   international politics, especially when it comes to financial
   international politics. So I think he's going to take our country
   forward."

   Letsosa's party will join a coalition with Majoro's ruling All Basotho
   Convention -- a move that, just months ago, would have been thought
   impossible in the nation's deeply divided political landscape.

   Thabane's resignation

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