Bethuel Pakalitha Mosisili (born March 14, 1945) has been the
Prime Minister-Heads of Government:-See also:*List of kings of Lesotho*lists of incumbents...
of
LesothoLesotho , officially the Kingdom of Lesotho, is a landlocked country and enclave — entirely surrounded by the Republic of South Africa. It is just over 30,000 km² in size with an estimated population of almost 1,800,000. Its capital and largest city is Maseru. Lesotho is the southernmost...
since May 29, 1998. He led his party, the
Lesotho Congress for DemocracyThe Lesotho Congress for Democracy is a political party in Lesotho.In 1997, Prime Minister Ntsu Mokhehle left the Basutoland Congress Party to form with his faction the new Lesotho Congress for Democracy. The new party won the 1998 elections with 60.7% of the popular vote and 79 out of 80 seats....
(LCD), to a near-total victory in the 1998 election, and under his leadership the party also won majorities in the 2002 and 2007 elections. In addition to serving as Prime Minister, Mosisili is the Minister of Defense.
In 1993, Mosisili was elected to parliament from the Qacha's Nek Constituency and became Minister of Education.
Bethuel Pakalitha Mosisili (born March 14, 1945) has been the
Prime Minister-Heads of Government:-See also:*List of kings of Lesotho*lists of incumbents...
of
LesothoLesotho , officially the Kingdom of Lesotho, is a landlocked country and enclave — entirely surrounded by the Republic of South Africa. It is just over 30,000 km² in size with an estimated population of almost 1,800,000. Its capital and largest city is Maseru. Lesotho is the southernmost...
since May 29, 1998. He led his party, the
Lesotho Congress for DemocracyThe Lesotho Congress for Democracy is a political party in Lesotho.In 1997, Prime Minister Ntsu Mokhehle left the Basutoland Congress Party to form with his faction the new Lesotho Congress for Democracy. The new party won the 1998 elections with 60.7% of the popular vote and 79 out of 80 seats....
(LCD), to a near-total victory in the 1998 election, and under his leadership the party also won majorities in the 2002 and 2007 elections. In addition to serving as Prime Minister, Mosisili is the Minister of Defense.
In 1993, Mosisili was elected to parliament from the Qacha's Nek Constituency and became Minister of Education. On April 14, 1994, he was briefly kidnapped along with three other ministers by soldiers; a fifth minister, Deputy Prime Minister Selometsi Baholo, was killed in this incident. Mosisili was appointed Deputy Prime Minister in late January 1995, while remaining Minister of Education; on July 20, 1995, he was named Minister of Home Affairs and Local Government instead, while remaining Deputy Prime Minister. A new ruling party, the LCD, was formed in 1997 under the leadership of Prime Minister
Ntsu MokhehleNtsu Mokhehle was a Lesotho politician. He served as Prime Minister of the country from 2 April 1993 to 17 August 1994 and from 14 September 1994 to 29 May 1998.Mokhehle was born in Teyateyaneng...
as a split from the Basutoland Congress Party. On February 21, 1998, Mosisili was elected leader of the LCD after Mokhehle chose to step down due to poor health.
After his party's victory in 1998, there were accusations of vote rigging and mass protests from the opposition parties, which culminated with their occupation of the grounds to the palace. In the ensuing debacle which saw the army, police and king complicit in an attempt to unseat his government, Mosisili had to resort to asking the regional grouping,
Southern African Development CommunityThe Southern African Development Community is an inter-governmental organization headquartered in Gaborone, Botswana. Its goal is to further socio-economic cooperation and integration as well as political and security cooperation among 15 southern African states...
(SADC), for an intervention to stem the imminent coup. New elections were eventually held in May 2002, which his party won, this after a major split led by his former deputy,
Kelebone MaopeKelebone Albert Maope is a politician in Lesotho. He served in the Basutoland Congress Party and Lesotho Congress for Democracy governments during the 1990s before splitting from the LCD in 2001 to form his own party, the Lesotho People's Congress .As a member of the BCP, Maope served as...
, and Shakhane Mokhehle, the brother of the late founder of his party. On this occasion, Mosisili himself was elected to a seat from the Tsoelike constituency, receiving 79.2% of the vote; in his previous constituency, Qacha's Nek,
Pontso SekatlePontso S. M. Sekatle is a politician and academic in Lesotho. Sekatle lectured at the National University of Lesotho from 1984 to 2001. In June 2001, she was appointed to the Senate of Lesotho, and on July 6 2001 she became Minister of Health and Social Welfare...
was the LCD candidate.
In October 2006,
Tom ThabaneTom Motsoahae Thabane is a Basotho politician, a Member of Parliament in the National Assembly of Lesotho, and the leader of the opposition All Basotho Convention....
left the LCD and formed a new party, and 17 other members of parliament joined him; this left the LCD with a narrow majority of 61 out of 120 seats. On Mosisili's advice, King
Letsie IIILetsie III is the king of Lesotho. He succeeded his father, Moshoeshoe II, when the latter was forced into exile in 1990. His father was briefly restored in 1995 but soon died in a car crash in early 1996, and Letsie became king again.He was educated in the United Kingdom at Ampleforth College...
dissolved parliament on November 24, 2006, and a new election was scheduled for February 17, 2007; they had previously been expected in April or May.
The LCD won this election, taking 61 seats; the
National Independent PartyThe National Independent Party is a political party in Lesotho.The NIP was founded by Anthony Manyeli as a split from the Basotho National Party. It performed poorly in the 1993 and 1998 parliamentary elections, but in the election for the National Assembly held on 25 May 2002, the party won 5.5%...
, allied with the LCD, won an additional 21 seats.
Whilst attending a funeral in his home district of Qacha's Nek in late 2006, Mosisili gave a speech which quoted a Basotho idiom, "Se sa feleng sea hlola", meaning "anything that does not finish/end is not good". Some believed that he was referring to his term in office and his embattled political party.
Armed men attacked Mosisili's residence on April 22, 2009, apparently intending to kill him; three of the attackers, one of whom was reportedly a soldier, were killed by police, and Mosisili was unharmed. Six people appeared before a South African court in July 2009 on charges of helping in the attempt. The Lesotho Communications Minister described the attack as a plot by South African and Mozambican mercenaries to stage a coup in Lesotho.