In the best interest of development

Ke tsoha ke nyoretsoe puso ea Ntate Mathibeli Mokhothu. Ka nnete e tlo ba kanana. Che, eseng ena ea SR. Kanana straight! (I wake up with a craving of Ntate Mokhothu’s governance.

It really is going to be a forcible revolution. But I do not mean that of the SR. A forcible overthrow of a government.)

I understand that Ntate Mokhuthu has promised to open thirty new diamond mines if he’s elected to power in the coming general elections on October 7, 2022. 30 mines! Hee, re tlo ja re paqame. (We are going to have it easy).

I had to re-emerge from my winter hibernation in order to put a few topical issues on the national agenda. Well, for those with a bit of energy left to go through opinion pieces amongst the clutter of political campaigns, big promises and blatant lies.

I have been in and out of Durban over the past few months, just to get a bit of warmth during the winter season. However, my working visit in Durban on the 22nd and 23rd July coincided with the ANC KZN elective conference.

Jesus! ANC ‘Comlades’ were at their worst behaviour and all hotels in Durban were fully booked. They were noisy, rowdy and just utterly disrespectful. They reminded me of members of certain political parties back home named ‘ABC’ and ‘XYZ’.

Now, you can imagine the amount of management one had to go through when travelling with kids, by covering their eyes and ears. So they wouldn’t see and hear some of the obscene behaviour from the comrades around the hotel lobbies and rooms. I’ll leave the rest to your imagination.

Haai! Black people! Even though we claim to be looked down by white people, ka ‘nete sometimes, our behaviour is questionable.

Questionable in a sense that, one really wonders whether we batho ba batšo (black people) fully evolved in the Homosapien evolution process or whether we are stuck somewhere between stage three and four. Feel free to Google search the Homosapien evolution process. More so, for students that may be reading this piece.

So, I felt the need to start writing after reading an article in one of the weekly newspapers from Lesotho. I have been begging my editor to start circulating thepost newspaper in South Africa and he always says, “Yes, I’ll look into it as of next week”.

This has been a plea for the past three years. As Basotho rightfully say, “‘Muso, ha o tate”. (The government takes its time to make developments). I guess it has also spilled over into the private sector but I’ll wait patiently.

In any case, the story that caught my attention has to do with a case that has been lodged by one big parastal to halt construction of the Queen II Hospital, on a piece of land that is adjacent to a site formerly known as Sanlam Centre.

The story at hand is that the land under dispute was transferred to the Ministry of Health in the year 1999 and that is where the eye clinic is currently being constructed. However, the parastatal is disputing this claim hence the legal action.

Now, one wonders whether officers at the parastatal realise the repercussions that may occur should the courts decide to grant a halt on construction as a result of boardroom squabbles.

Look, here is my point, how long has it been since Sanlam Centre was burnt-down in the September 1998 political riots? Yes, 24 years! Now, tell me, why is this issue being raised now that construction is well under way? Why not before construction began? Why now?

By virtue of lodging a case to halt/suspend construction of Queen II Hospital, a lot of jobs are at a risk of being lost.
Second question, how long did it take for the grant funding for construction of Queen II Hospital from the People’s Republic of China take? Some people claim it took well over ten years to tie the deal.

So we would rather risk losing part of the grant funding/investment from China Aid because of our fixation on winning an argument on who is right or wrong? Is that the risk we are willing to take? Let’s spare a thought for a second.

Why am I raising this topic? When construction at the Pension Fund House development (Letsie House, Constitution Road) was completed, construction workers from LSP Construction were ordered to start work at a new construction site for a seven-storey building that was originally meant be the new Nedbank Headquarters.

The development was named Park Square Development and the site was at the old Square One site, across the road to Pioneer Mall.

A construction crane that was erected at the Central Bank site, was dismantled and relocated to the new Park Square site across the road to Pioneer Mall. Literally a week before construction was about to start at Park Square, boardroom squabbles rumbled behind the scenes until the deal collapsed. Literally a week before construction was due to start.

Now, when construction work gets interrupted (halted) because of petty squabbles, victims that suffer the most are innocent poor people. I am talking about a brick-layer that is trying to feed his family.

It affects a taka-boy that is trying to make ends meet. A street vendor selling fat-cakes at the gate of the construction site. These are the people that get affected, hence the rampant unemployment rate.

To reactivate the construction process is not easy at all once it has be halted. It comes with very heavy additional costs. Google a case of the Amazon headquarters in Cape Town.

As a last point, in the year 2015, I approached KEL Properties (LECSA) to develop a filling station on a vacant plot adjacent to Sefika Shopping Centre.

At the time, the site had a few shacks on it and the idea was to develop a world-class service station with public toilets and street vendor stalls.

I secured funding from Total Lesotho to cover all the capital expenditure for the project. A fully funded project! When I approached Maseru City Council (MCC) for a building permit, tsa qala likhathatso. (Squabbles started).

Ao ntate, I tell you, I was informed that the site is actually owned by the Maseru City Council (MCC) as a result of a ‘verbal’ agreement that was undertaken around 1997/’98 between the MCC and the National University of Lesotho, which was the property developer of Sefika Shopping Centre.

This has to do with a servitude that was created behind the shopping centre site, to make an access for a service-lane to Shoprite Sefika. This was ‘a verbal agreement’ because it didn’t exist on paper and was no-where to be found in the MCC filing system.

All I said was, let’s put development first. Whether that agreement was made or not, there’s no reason for petty squabbles. Let’s create a concession agreement with new terms and conditions.

No, it looks like I was talking nonsense because certain individuals from the Maseru City Council (MCC) were adamant to prove a point and win the argument.

The question is, at what cost? At the ultimate cost of losing funding from Total? Indeed it was because the then incoming CEO of Total from France, just said F-it, this is a waste of my time.

That’s how Total was subsequently sold to Puma Energy in 2018. Now, who were the ultimate losers in these squabbles? The average young man and female desperately seeking a stable job. Street vendors without proper working conditions and commuters without adequate toilet facilities at the Sefika Taxi Rank.

If you have time, please go have a look at the public toilets at the Sefika Taxi rank and tell me what you saw.

To cut the long story short, the argument between KEL Properties and Maseru City Council is still raging on and the site has become a dump that is infested by rats and spilling sewerage.

Now, you can imagine the amount of devastation this issue caused to the average construction workers. The promises for jobs went up in smoke because of boardroom egos.

If only people would pay careful attention to the people that really suffer when we make arguments between who is right or wrong.

These are innocent people that just want to put bread on the table to feed their kids. Those are the poor people that don’t have a privilege of munching biscuits and sipping tea all day in comfortable offices.

Lastly, poor people can’t afford basics anymore. We’ve all seen how paraffin sales got affected in the current winter season. The point I am trying to put across is that, over and above everything, let’s all act in the best interest of development because development equals jobs.

‘Mako Bohloa