His office says Ramaphosa will be back in Maseru later this week.

During his fourth visit heading the SADC facilitation team, Cyril Ramaphosa saw King Letsie III and prime minister Tomas  Thabane.

He also had meetings with  deputy prime minister Mothejoa Metsing, European Union  ambassador Michael Doyle and members of the Independent Election Commission.

He’ s in the business of restoring stability to Lesotho in terms of the Maseru Facilitation Declaration.

This was signed by Lesotho’s main political players following an August 30 coup attempt that forced  Thabane to seek shelter in South Africa.

The region pushed  for the reconvening of Lesotho’s parliament last Friday to pass the country’s budget and prepare for the holding of early elections next February.

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He’s arriving as the police force in the mountain kingdom investigates some of its own officers for their possible role in an attempted military coup a month ago that left one of their colleagues dead.

Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa’s visit as SADC’s facilitator’s designed to get Lesotho’s political and other role players talking.

He’s backed by a regional team from Zimbabwe, Namibia and Botswana.

The police probe into the attempted coup on August 30 – that sent Prime Minister Thomas Thabane into a brief exile in South Africa – has become a wider treason and
murder inquiry, indicating it may be broader and more intricately planned than first thought.

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He was in the capital of the Mountain Kingdom last week when police and soldiers, who’ve been at loggerheads since a coup attempt three weeks ago, exchanged fire

Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa’s started his facilitation in Lesotho by seeing King Letsie III and holding meetings with political actors including Prime Minister Tom Thabana, members of his coalition government and leaders of opposition parties.

He’s supported by a team from the regional SADC group.

Their goal is get Lesotho back on the constitutional path by holding elections this year.

That’s two years before expiry of the mandate of the current parliament that been shuttered since June.

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Tlali Kamoli’s mutiny has been cited by Thabane as the reason it’s too dangerous to allow normal political activity in the mountain kingdom.

General Tlali Kamoli himself insists he poses no threat to Lesotho.

Backed by at least 200 of the kingdom’s special forces, Kamoli says he’s not in hiding and denies having attempted a coup on August 30 to oust Prime Minister Thomas Thabane.

Senior SADC officials at last night’s Pretoria summit on Lesotho says it’s all about the money.

They say Kamoli contends that his sacking has Lesotho’s army commander has unfairly cost him money.

So he will end his mutiny if he’s given two year’s salary and a diplomatic posting.

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Last night’s SADC summit in Pretoria opted for a speedy return to Lesotho’s people because their elected leaders can’t arrive at a formula to end months of mounting instability.

The region was dragged into Lesotho’s domestic political crisis when an apparent coup attempt last month drove Prime Minister Thomas Thabane into exile in South Africa.

He went home promising to name a date for reassembling the parliament he suspended in June.

Last night’s SADC summit in Pretoria decided that since he’s unable to do this, the mandate of the disintegrating coalition will be shortened so that elections due in the mountain kingdom in 2017 will be expedited.

And a SADC observer mission headed by Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa will oversee this.

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Leader of the SADC organ on politics defence and security will also consider developments in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Lesotho’s deadlocked political parties have failed to meet last Friday’s deadline for a fresh peace deal.

This has prompted President Jacob Zuma, as head of the regional troika, to call an emergency meeting of its leaders.
Zuma visited the mountain kingdom last week where political leaders promised him that they would decide
by week’s end on a date to re-open Lesotho’s parliament.

Suspension of the legislature caused an abortive coup at the end of August.

Prime Minister Thomas Thabane who fled to South Africa in fear of his life, is back in Maseru under South African police guard.

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An aide says the South Africans are still guarding the premier at his official residence in the capital Maseru.

Lesotho’s military denies it mounted a coup against Thabane who heads a disintegrating coalition government.

Last Saturday, Thomas Thabane fled into South Africa, which entirely surrounds Lesotho, saying he feared for his life from soldiers who were searching for him.

In Pretoria on Monday he negotiated a roadmap with South African President Jacob Zuma designed to restore stability to the kingdom.

It required him going home and recalling parliament, that he’s suspended since June, where he’ll face a no confidence motion.

Thabane delayed his return by a day after Lesotho police said they couldn’t protect him.

The premier’s aide Samonyane Ntsekele says Thabane’s safe and working from his residence seeking to ensure General Maaparankoe Mahao replaces General Tlali Kamoli as head of the army.

Thabane maintains Kamoli staged Saturday’s attempted coup.

The 15-nation Southern African Development Community has sent an observer team to Lesotho. But it’s rebuffed Thabane’s call on them to deploy peacekeepers.

The South African military’s denies it’s involved in protecting Lesotho officials, adding that any deployment in the kingdom will require a request from the regional body.

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Key to this though is getting a renegade general, hiding in the hills with stolen weapons and a band of hard line loyalists, to step down.

After three hours in Lesotho, President Jacob Zuma got an undertaking from elements in the kingdom’s disintegrating coalition to hold further negotiations.

Their goal will be to arrive at a concrete date for reopening Lesotho’s parliament that was suspended in June by Prime Minister Thomas Thabane.

He told reporters the parties are just about to get there.

However there is no solution to the security threat that he says stopped him assembling the legislature later this month.

That’s the presence of the renegade general Tlali Kamoli accused of triggering the crisis last month after being sacked by Thabane.

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