It’s been a year since Lipolelo Thabane, then the estranged wife of Lesotho Prime Minister Thomas Thabane, was shot dead at her home and still there’s been no closure on the case.

The 58-year-old Lipolelo Thabane was killed on June 14, 2017  – immediately prior to Thabane’s inauguration  – in Ha Masana, about 35 kilometers to the south of Maseru. She was buried two weeks later at Makhoakhoeng.

In March, Teboho Mojapela of the country’s Socialist Revolution party said that police were questioning him in the case – and not for the first time, the Lesotho Times reported. He has complained of death threats and last month, the party again called for increased security to protect him.

Yet authorities have never made any arrests in the case. Members of Thabane’s All Basotho Convention (ABC) party publicly shared suspicions that the death was an attempt to disrupt the 2017 political transition, but opposition leaders denied those claims and in October expressed concern that the government was shutting down the murder investigation.

Lipolelo Thabane married the prime minister in 1987; divorce proceedings were filed in 2012. She was Thabane’s second wife, and the two raised a daughter together. She was the youngest of five siblings.

After completing her education at National University of Lesotho (NUL) and University of Transkei (UNITRA), she worked at Barclays Bank and the Chinese Garments Manufacturers (CGM) before becoming a founding member of the ABC. She was self-employed at the time of her death, the Lesotho government said.

Image: China TV file