Wife of new Lesotho Prime Minister shot dead ahead of his inauguration

The wife of Lesotho’s new Prime Minister Thomas Thabane is reported to have been shot dead on Wednesday by a gunman hours before her husband’s inauguration.

58-year-old Dipolelo Thabane was shot together with another woman while driving in a village 35 kilometers from the capital Maseru, police said without confirming the identities.

“I can just confirm that a 58-year-old woman was shot dead last night in Ha ‘Masana but it’s too soon to reveal her name and to whom she is related,” Police Commissioner Clifford Molefe was quoted by AFP.

Basotho journalist Keiso Mohloboli posted on Twitter that Thomas Thabane’s daughter Advocate Nkoya Thabane confirmed the shooting of her stepmother Dipolelo Thabane.

Thabane's daughter Advocate Nkoya Thabane confirms fatal shooting of her step mother Dipolelo Thabane today

— Keiso Mohloboli (@kmohloboli) June 14, 2017

The new Prime Minister and his wife are reported to be separated and in the process of getting a divorce.

Thomas Thabane is scheduled to be inaugurated on Friday after his Basotho Convention (ABC) party took the lead in the country’s parliamentary election last Tuesday.

They won 48 seats out of 120, ahead of Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili, who won only 30 seats.

Thabane, who made a comeback after a two-year exile, was chased out of the country after a failed military coup in 2014 when he was Prime Minister.

He fled to South Africa and briefly returned in 2015 for parliamentary elections where he was beaten.