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Two days after returning from South Africa following a military coup, Lesotho's Prime Minister Tomas Thabane on Thursday pledged to re-open parliament on September 19.
A meeting between conflicting parties has been scheduled for Friday to discuss the implementation of an agreement mediated by the Southern African Development Community (SADC), sources in Maseru, capital of Lesotho, said on condition of anonymity.
Lesotho cannot afford any kind of delay because it is of utmost importance to get the SADC agreement right, Thabane said in an interview with the South African Broadcasting Corporation.
Thabane, who dissolved parliament in June to avoid a vote of no- confidence, said they would look like the funniest people "if we asked SADC to intervene, reached an agreement and then we went ahead and acted against those agreements".
But Thabane insisted that his decision to remove Army Commander General, Tlali Kamoli would not be changed.
The decision triggered the military coup in the mountain kingdom over the weekend.
On early Saturday morning, the Lesotho military seized the police headquarters and the Mabote police station in Maseru, claiming that police officers intended to pass arms and ammunitions to Thabane's All Basotho convention called "Under the Tree".
Police are loyal to Thabane, while the military support Deputy Prime Minister Mothetjoa Metsing.
The army also raided the residence of Thabane, who had fled the country to South Africa hours before the coup.
The SADC intervened and brought leaders in the coalition government to an agreement which allowed Thabane to return home to continue his duties, particularly to re-open parliament.
Under the agreement, leaders of the Lesotho coalition government pledged to render the SADC full support with a view to speedily restore stability and security in the kingdom.
According to reports reaching here, police in Lesotho have returned back and situation returned to normalcy, including at one of the police stations raided over the weekend.
