Engen boss sues government

MASERU – ENGEN Lesotho’s managing director, Tebogo Mosehla, is suing the government for revoking his work permit.
Minister of Labour and Employment, Selemo Mangobe, revoked Mosehla’s work permit in April, barely five months after it was granted.

Mangobe said his decision was based on the fact that Mosehla had failed to “disclose material facts” crucial to the consideration of his application.
On April 20 Mangobe gave Mosehla, a South African, 24 hours to surrender his work permit card to the ministry

Yet Mosehla is yet to relinquish his card two weeks later.
Instead, he and Engen Lesotho have dragged the minister to court to block his decision.

In papers filed last week, Engen Lesotho argues that the minister did not have the power to cancel Mosehla’s permit. It says that power belongs to the Labour Commissioner.
The case was heard in the High Court this week.

The Lesotho Workers Association (Lewa), which aggressively pushed for the permit to be annulled, has also been sucked into the court battle.
Lewa was granted permission to intervene in the case after arguing that it had substantial interests in the matter.

The union had fought tooth and nail to get Mosehla’s permit cancelled, arguing that the job should have been given to a Mosotho and that Mosehla lacked the temperament to manage relations between Engen and its staff.

It also alleged that the permit was unlawfully awarded.
During the hearing this week, Advocate Christopher Liphuthing, the union’s lawyer, argued that Engen’s case should be thrown out because the High Court doesn’t have jurisdiction.

He argued that Engen’s application was essentially a labour issue that should be handled by the Labour Court. Advocate Maseephephe Matete, the ministry’s chief legal officer, pushed the same argument.

Judgement is expected to be delivered early next week.
The union has been unrelenting in its pressure to get Mosehla’s work permit cancelled.

Five days after the minister’s decision was communicated to Mosehla, the union wrote another letter to the minister.
It praised the minister for heeding its call but was quick to point out that Mosehla was yet to surrender his permit card as instructed.

“In the interim, we will approach the police to enforce this decision and we will request your good office to assist the police with some of your employees within the ministry because the police can arrest any person in the present (sic) of a labour officer,” said Hlalefang Seoaholimo, the general secretary of Lewa, in the letter.

Mosehla replaced Theodore Molapo who took early retirement in August last year after more than 20 years with the company.
He was granted the permit last December despite opposition from some stakeholders who felt there were Basotho qualified to do the job.

They complained that granting Mosehla a permit to replace a Mosotho was a reversal of the government’s policy to localise the sector.

Moshe Leoma, the then Minister of Labour, however, granted the permit.
He said he made the decision after being lobbied by fuel dealers who told him to give Mosehla a chance because he could help grow the business in Lesotho.

Staff Reporter