The memorial service and burial for Lipolelo Thabane are planned for Friday in Lesotho, more than two weeks after the estranged wife of newly installed Prime Minister Thomas Thabane was shot dead at her home.

The 58-year-old Lipolelo Thabane was killed on June 14, immediately prior to Thabane’s inauguration, in Ha Masana, about 35 kilometers to the south of Maseru. She will be buried at Makhoakheng, local media reports.

Authorities have not made an arrest in the case, although members of Thabane’s All Basotho Convention (ABC) party have publicly shared their suspicions that the death was an attempt to disrupt the political transition. Opposition politicians and others deny those claims, with some pointing to Thabane’s relationship as the reason.

Lipolelo Thabane married the prime minister in 1987 and filed for divorced in 2012. She was Thabane’s second wife, and the mother of two adult sons, one of them autistic, and a younger daughter. She was the youngest of five siblings.

Her death has heightened existing concerns over political instability in Lesotho.

Thabane and the All Basotho Convention (ABC) party picked up 48 parliamentary seats in elections held on June 3, then forged a coalition that includes Alliance of Democrats (AD), Basotho National Party (BNP) and Reformed Congress of Lesotho (RCL) members. That coalition government was formalized with Thabane’s inauguration.

Lesotho voters returned to the polls for the third time in five years following a March 1 no-confidence parliamentary vote against Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili, who replaced Thabane in 2015.

Image: China TV File