article_title name birth_date
kelebone maope
 kelebone maope 1945
kelebone maope

kelebone albert maope -lrb- born 1945 -rrb- is a politician in lesotho .
he served in the basutoland congress party -lrb- bcp -rrb- and lesotho congress for democracy -lrb- lcd -rrb- governments during the 1990s before splitting from the lcd in 2001 to form his own party , the lesotho people 's congress -lrb- lpc -rrb- .
as a member of the bcp , maope served as attorney general and minister of justice under the military regime that ruled lesotho from 1986 to 1993 .
he was also minister of justice in the bcp government that took office in 1993 .
on april 14 , 1994 , he was briefly kidnapped along with three other ministers by soldiers ; a fifth minister , deputy prime minister selometsi baholo , was killed in this incident .
maope served as minister of justice until he was named minister of foreign affairs in a cabinet reshuffle on july 20 , 1995 .
on february 21 , 1998 he was elected deputy leader of the new ruling party , the lcd , which had been formed in 1997 .
he remained in this position until june 1998 , when he was appointed deputy prime minister and minister of agriculture and land reclamation .
on july 22 , 1999 , he became minister of finance and development planning , while remaining deputy prime minister .
in early 2001 , maope was re-elected as deputy leader of the lcd without opposition .
in july 2001 , he was moved from his position as minister of finance to that of minister of justice and constitutional affairs , remaining deputy prime minister .
in september 2001 , tensions within the lcd were reflected in a statement by maope , a member of the party 's lesiba faction , alleging that the government was oppressive .
foreign minister tom thabane then publicly insulted maope .
on september 28 , maope resigned from the government , and he formed a new party , the lesotho people 's congress -lrb- lpc -rrb- , which was registered on october 8 .
the lpc , with maope as its leader , gained 27 members of parliament through defections from the lcd .
in the may 2002 parliamentary election , maope won a seat in the seqonoka constituency ; he was the only lpc candidate to win a constituency , although the party gained four other seats through proportional representation .
