{"id":1221342,"date":"2022-10-11T12:31:11","date_gmt":"2022-10-11T12:31:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/10\/11\/lesotho-tycoon-sam-matekane-i-will-head-a-three-party-coalition-government\/"},"modified":"2022-10-11T12:31:11","modified_gmt":"2022-10-11T12:31:11","slug":"lesotho-tycoon-sam-matekane-i-will-head-a-three-party-coalition-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/10\/11\/lesotho-tycoon-sam-matekane-i-will-head-a-three-party-coalition-government\/","title":{"rendered":"Lesotho tycoon Sam Matekane: I will head a three-party coalition government"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/image-prod.iol.co.za\/16x9\/800?source=https:\/\/xlibris.public.prod.oc.inl.infomaker.io:8443\/opencontent\/objects\/5be557d2-055e-58f0-9e5f-7d5c8f35bc4f&amp;operation=CROP&amp;offset=0x184&amp;resize=4213x2369\" class=\"type:primaryImage\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Maseru, Lesotho \u2013  A diamond millionaire who scored a stunning breakthrough in nationwide elections in Lesotho last week announced on Tuesday that he would head a three-party coalition government.<\/p>\n<p>Tycoon Sam Matekane confounded expectations that the southern African mountain kingdom would remain politically gridlocked after last Friday\u2019s ballot.<\/p>\n<p>His pro-business Revolution for Prosperity (RFP) party, founded just six months ago, picked up 56 seats in the legislature \u2014 five seats short of an absolute majority.<\/p>\n<div>!function(e,t,r){let n;if(e.getElementById(r))return;const a=e.getElementsByTagName(\u201cscript\u201d)[0];n=e.createElement(\u201cscript\u201d),n.id=r,n.defer=!0,n.src=\u201dhttps:\/\/playback.oovvuu.media\/player\/v1.js\u201d,a.parentNode.insertBefore(n,a)}(document,0,\u201doovvuu-player-sdk\u201d);<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>At a press conference, Matekane said the RFP had formed a coalition government with the Alliance of Democrats (AD) and Movement for Economic Change (MEC).<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe leaders of RFP, AD and MEC inform the Basotho nation that we have agreed to form a new coalition government following the announcement of the general election results,\u201d Matekane, 64, said.<\/p>\n<p>Matekane was flanked by AD deputy leader Ntoi Rapapa and MEC leader Selibe Mochoboroane as he made the announcement at a hotel in the capital Maseru.<\/p>\n<p>The AD won six seats in the elections, and MEC five.<\/p>\n<div>!function(e,t,r){let n;if(e.getElementById(r))return;const a=e.getElementsByTagName(\u201cscript\u201d)[0];n=e.createElement(\u201cscript\u201d),n.id=r,n.defer=!0,n.src=\u201dhttps:\/\/playback.oovvuu.media\/player\/v1.js\u201d,a.parentNode.insertBefore(n,a)}(document,0,\u201doovvuu-player-sdk\u201d);<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Outside, supporters of the parties dressed in their party colours sang and chanted slogans, as car drivers hooted their backing.<\/p>\n<p>A constitutional monarchy entirely surrounded by South Africa on which it depends economically, Lesotho has been governed by a string of rickety coalition governments for the past decade.<\/p>\n<p>The outgoing parliament failed to pass a law aimed at strengthening political stability.<\/p>\n<p>The bill would ban lawmakers from switching party allegiance within the first three years of their tenure.<\/p>\n<p>The Matekane-led government promises that pushing through this reform will be part of its agenda in its first 100 days in office.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Maseru, Lesotho \u2013 A diamond millionaire who scored a stunning breakthrough in nationwide elections in Lesotho last week announced on Tuesday that he would head a three-party coalition government. Tycoon Sam Matekane confounded expectations that the southern African mountain kingdom would remain politically gridlocked after last Friday\u2019s ballot. His pro-business Revolution for Prosperity (RFP) party, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1221342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1221342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1221342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1221342\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1221342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1221342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1221342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}