This emerged on Monday in a Southern African Development Community (SADC) Double Troika Extraordinary Summit in Pretoria.

President Jacob Zuma, called the one-day summit as the Chairperson of the SADC Organ on Politics and Defence following an attempted coup on 30 August. Peace talks between political parties have deadlocked since the coup.

The summit mandated that Deputy President, Cyril Ramaphosa, supported by the Secretariat and a team of experts from troika member states, act as SADC Facilitator to the Kingdom of Lesotho with clear terms of reference to facilitate the restoration of political and security stability in Lesotho, in the short and long term.

“[The] summit mandated the SADC Organ Troika plus Zimbabwe to urgently deploy the full SADC Politics, Defence and Security observation mission in Lesotho for a period of three months, after which it could be reviewed to ensure peace and stability within the defence and security establishments,” reads the communique issued at the end of the summit last night.

The summit was attended by Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, Botswana President Ian Khama , Lesotho’s Prime Minister Thomas Thabane and his Deputy Mothetjoa Metsing, as well as representatives from Malawi, Namibia and Tanzania.

Available: http://www.sanews.gov.za/south-africa/sa-lead-observer-mission-lesotho