Foreign aid is not always beneficial

Once upon a time, life used to be so fun in Lesotho. I remember the days of Arsenal Football club. Yes, there was once a team named Arsenal Football Club in Maseru and I was a big fan of it. The team was big in the early 1990’s and swept almost everyone with popularity. Maybe it was because there were no political parties and no political rallies back then. Life was good because Lesotho was under military rule and political parties were banned. The main reason was because the military rulers of the time saw political parties as divisive machines that were out there to cause tensions and yes, they were absolutely correct. I think we should go back there because the model worked. The mention of the political names such as BNP or BCP was not allowed. Political party colours were also banned. Basotho were united and focused on meaningful things and sports became one of the tools used to unify the nation. That’s how teams such as Arsenal football club came into being. I bring this up because I’ve noted that these opinion pieces that we write on a weekly basis have a following from young people and some of them are people born beyond the year 2000 (ma-2000), of which is quite commendable. Our young people need a reference point of events that shaped our history and need to document our history and write about our stories. However, Basotho people are more of talkers than writers. So, yes, Arsenal Football Club was a big team in the early 90’s and it used to play in big championships like the CAF tournament. I don’t quiet remember how far it once advanced to in the CAF championship of around 93/94. But I think it went as far as the semi-finals and that was big. The motto of Arsenal Football Club was Go-Go-Go! And the stadium would go abuzz and everyone would shout, “Go-Go-Go!” Those were exciting times. No headaches from the ABC or BNP with their shenanigans at the LCA. After each game, the team would go to Victoria Hotel for an after party. No, Victoria Hotel was alive then. There were cinemas, classy restaurants and it was clean. Not this thing that it is has become that constantly smells of urine. Bo-Ntate! So, my father frequented London quite a lot in those days on business related to the Lesotho Highlands Water Project. Sometimes on his trips to London, the Arsenal team president, Mr Thabo Makakole, would ask my father to fetch an order for the latest kit from the Arsenal Football club in the UK. The real deal! Then on his return to the Mountain Kingdom, I’d usually be the first to see the kit. Sometime I’d sneak my friends into the room where the kit was hidden for safe keeping, just to get a glimpse of what to expect in the next big match and you can imagine the smiles on our faces. I remember one Sunday and Arsenal was yet to play one of their big matches. Setsoto Stadium would be packed to capacity and people had to arrive early in the morning to get the best seat in the stadium. We usually sat on the Royal Stand with my friend and his father, Ntate S.J. Thabisi. Ntate Thabisi was a family man and valued time with family and Sundays were dedicated to sports. Because of Arsenal’s popularity, it meant that we had to arrive at around 08:00 and 09:00 at the ticket booth in order to get into the stadium early enough to get the best seat. I remember a certain day in particular and quite vividly. We were in the queue to buy tickets and there was a local contractor that was busy repairing roads in Stadium Road around the Stadium area and in front of Setsoto Stadium on that particular day. But there was something unique about the manner in which the road was being constructed this time around. The contractor would spray some black slimy fluid (bitumen) contained in drums and run a rag (mokotla) on top of the fluid to spread it out evenly. This, of-course, raised a lot of question marks and I could see confusion on people’s faces. I was also confused. Then as we were in the queue, one gentleman asked a question in a sarcastic way and said, hao banna, tsela tsee se li etsoa ka mokotla na banna? Meaning, are roads now constructed using rags. That’s how people coined a sarcastic phrase that went, tsela tsa mekotla and I don’t quite remember who the contractor was but those were the early days. Ho ne ho sa qaloa. The following Wednesday, it rained heavily and the new road was swept away and it was back to square one. Basotho with their sarcasm kept on saying, hela tsela eane e hlatsue ke metsi meaning the road has been washed away. In those days, slightly after the unbanning of political parties in 1993 and after the Basotho Congress Party (BCP) took over the reins of government, there was a deliberate intent to build local capacity especially when it came to road construction. The BCP government made a bold decision to empower five local and indigenous construction companies. In those days, South African and international construction firms dominated the road construction industry. In fact, foreign nationals dominated the construction industry and there were companies such as M&C Construction, Flash Construction, Maples, Kingsway Construction, Benco (that built the Lesotho Bank Tower) and Forest Construction (that built the old Royal Palace. The majestic one, not this one). Yes, there were attempts by Basotho nationals to go into construction but they were not as successful as their counterparts. The idea and intent to build local capacity was one of the best ideas to come out of this country. It then created a need for local entrepreneurs to establish construction firms and to start with small jobs and gain experience as well as to build a skills base. That is how the likes of Mr Matekane, Mr Phooko (Thescons) and Mr Nthane got their shot in the construction industry. This was an empowerment revolution. Had the BCP government decided not to empower those local entrepreneurs, the road construction industry could have still remained in the hands of non-Basotho contractors. There wouldn’t have been any local capacity in terms of skills and equipment to go further into more challenging projects. I guess we could call that initiative by the BCP government as the BEE (Black Economic Empowerment) of Lesotho. But it meant prioritising a certain quota of projects for Basotho nationals. Now this brings me to a pertinent point and the gist of this piece about projects such as the new Maseru Hospital Project (formerly known as Queen Two Hospital). In my view, this is a bad project and Lesotho shouldn’t have accepted a grant for the construction of the new hospital and allow me to tell you why. The funding to build the new Maseru hospital comes in the form of a grant from China and there are stringent conditions to this form of funding. Firstly, the donor dictates what to build and the size/cost of the grant. In fact, allow me to tell you an interesting story. I was reliably informed that in China, there is an organisation named China Aid. So, our beloved African leaders are often called to select projects that would answer a need for their individual countries. It’s a one size fits all situation. The projects are already designed and have an indicative (indication) cost attached to them. So, a project like the State Library or the new parliament building had already been designed long ago and it was a cut and paste situation. That is the reason why the State Library building is so out of context with the site and surroundings. If you study the library building closely, you’ll realise that the back of the building was supposed to face the main road, Kingsway Road and what we see as the front supposed to be facing the back. This is what happens when you accept almost anything. Well, in Sesotho, there is a saying that goes, mpho ha e phetloe meno, meaning a gift can’t be scrutinised, whether good or bad. That is the reason why you’ll have a project like the new Parliament building that has no cultural significance. None whatsoever. In my view, the Parliament should be located in Thaba Bosiu and be surrounded by its own Parliament village for cultural significance. Maybe it would have helped our MPs to catch some fresh air in Thaba Bosiu and come up with sound ideas. In modern times, Thaba Bosiu has been turned into one big scrapyard. What is a scrapyard doing on the foothill of a historic mountain? This one size fits all approach to grant funding is bad because it comes with conditions such as, a Chinese construction company will do the bulk of construction. Materials to build the new hospital will be sourced from China. Only 30% of the project will be subcontracted to local firms and we are yet to see if it is true. Look, this is a bad deal and let me tell you why. For a simple reason that we don’t love ourselves as Basotho people and will accept anything that is thrown at us, we won’t even scrutinise a project that has no value to the skills base, to the tax revenue collection and just to build something of national pride and significance. A project such as the new Maseru Hospital, denies local property developers a chance to come up with creative ideas to utilise space efficiently and optimally (spatial planning). I am told that the new hospital will not have any basement parking and all parking is above ground. Like really! In the year 2020? The other important factor is that these grant projects deny our local construction firms to get big jobs. In construction capacity is built once a firm gets a big job like the way in which LSP Construction tackled the Central Bank project. That is how firms grow. So, how will local firms grow if they are denied projects? Secondly, these grant projects are bad for tax revenue collection. If a foreign contractor comes into the country with their own equipment and material, it denies other players in the value chain to gain some form of benefit from funding or capital injection. For example, if you take a project like the Central Bank building, materials were sourced locally and hardware stores benefit directly. The funds are filtered down into the economy and VAT was collected downstream. Lastly, we can afford to finance projects such as the Maseru Hospital development if we wanted to and if we had the political will to do so. In my opinion, grant funding makes us lazy and complacent. In fact, it makes us look stupid. We become yes men. “Yes Sir. Yes Madam”. “When are you going to implement reforms?” “Soon Madam, soon!” Foreign aid makes us weak and to lose our credibility. Ramahooana Matlosa made a valid point on the LHDA project. We could’ve opted to finance the project ourselves and sell the water at our own terms. But no, we love the easy way out and the easy way out often leaves us with a lot of liabilities. When we construct buildings and infrastructure in general, we do it in such a manner that will give our country some form of character. That is the reason why buildings need to have some sort of local context and meaning. But most importantly, local artisans need to be utilised in order for them to sharpen their skills further and foreign aid most often denies them that opportunity to do so. As a result, we don’t grow our industries and skills. That’s my view. What’s your take on the topic? ‘Mako Bohloa