Maesaiah or Maesiah Thabane (born 16 April 1977) is the wife of the former prime minister of Lesotho

Tom Thabane Thomas Motsoahae Thabane (born 28 May 1939) is a Mosotho politician who was the fifth prime minister of Lesotho from 2012 to 2015 and from 2017 to 2020. He founded the All Basotho Convention (ABC) in 2006 and led the party until 2022. Thabane s ...

since her marriage to Thabane on 27 August 2017. On 10 January 2020, police issued an arrest warrant for Maesiah Thabane in connection with the 2017 shooting death of Tom Thabane's estranged wife Lipolelo Thabane.

Biography

Born Liabiloe Ramoholi to

Basotho The Sotho () people, also known as the Basuto or Basotho (), are a Bantu nation native to southern Africa. They split into different ethnic groups over time, due to regional conflicts and colonialism, which resulted in the modern Basotho, who ...

people, she married Tom Thabane on 27 August 2017 at a ceremony held at

Setsoto Stadium The Setsoto Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Maseru, Lesotho. It is currently used mostly for football matches. The stadium holds 20,000. It is currently the home ground of the Lesotho national football team. It has been renovated and enlarg ...

Maseru Maseru is the capital and largest city of Lesotho. It is also the capital of the Maseru District. Located on the Caledon River, Maseru lies directly on the Lesotho–South Africa border. Maseru had a population of 330,760 in the 2016 census. The ...

. She contested the

Mokhotlong Mokhotlong is a city and seat of Mokhotlong District in the mountainous northeastern part of Lesotho. It is the first major city with an airport along the road from South Africa across the Sani Pass, near the Maloti (Drakensberg in South Africa) ...

seat as a candidate of the

All Basotho Convention The All Basotho Convention (ABC; ) is a political party in Lesotho. The party was formed in October 2006 and founded by Tom Thabane, a former minister in the Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD) led by the government of Prime Minister Pakalitha ...

(ABC) party in

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; 2022 Sri Lankan protests, Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretari ...

, receiving 190 votes.

Controversy

In May 2018, allegations arose that Maesiah Thabane Trust Fund Director Makarabo Mojakhomo and her husband, Ministry of Home Affairs officer Thabang Mojakhomo, had defrauded the organisation founded by the first lady of up to . On May 21, after Makarabo disappeared from police custody,

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...

published a plea for "urgent action", reporting, "Makarabo's family fear that she has been subjected to enforced disappearance given the history of such cases in the country involving security forces". After Mojakhomo's reappearance in South Africa in May 2019, she reported fear that the first lady has "powers to control the police and the judiciary so hewould not get a free and fair trial with her in control". Thabane was also accused in September 2018 by Motlohi Maliehe, minister of tourism, environment and culture and chairman of the

(ABC) party, of corrupt action. Maliehe was fired from his ministerial position after he claimed Thabane was "torpedoing government by seeking to control ministers and how they performed their duties" and "instigating the removal of ministers who refused to comply with her demands". Such actions have supposedly contributed to the fracturing of the ABC, one "clouded by" similar "disorderly behaviour". In response to Maliehe's allegations, Thabane cited frustration at "official bungling and government inertia", which "sometimes forced her to take matters into her own hands to ensure

got heservices they needed". She said she was particularly concerned about the lack of treatment available for cancer patients, as well as

HIV/AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual ...

. In July 2019, she hosted the 12th Stop Cervical, Breast and Prostate Cancers in Africa Conference (SCCA), which was attended by some African First Ladies.

References

1977 births Year of birth uncertain Living people First Ladies of Lesotho People from Mokhotlong District {{Lesotho-politician-stub