Africa-Press – Lesotho. The Ministry of Small Businesses Development, Cooperatives and Marketing announced the suspension of Maseru Dawning Trading’s licence following its failure to
settle wool and mohair farmers’ payments. Speaking at a media briefing on Tuesday the Ministry of Small Businesses Development, Cooperatives and Marketing Principal Secretary (PS) Tankiso Phapano said they
held a meeting with Maseru Dawning, a broker owned by a Chinese national Stone Shi, Standard Lesotho Bank (SLB) Management and farmers who have not been paid.
“The intension of the meeting was to try to understand the reasons why some farmers have not been paid until now,” he said. Phapano
added that one of the reasons stated was that there were challenges faced by both the bank and Maseru Dawning regarding payments. He said there were double
payments made to some farmers, therefore they set a time frame for correction of records and completion of payments, which also expired. He said he called
for another meeting with them whereby they were given an extra time but he has not received a report about the progress to date. Phapano further indicated that the Minister of Small businesses Development, Cooperatives and Marketing Hon.
Keketso Sello; who has the authority to give out brokerage licenses to brokers, decided to suspend Maseru Dawning licence with immediate effect. He said this implies
that for now, Maseru Downing will stop trading wool and mohair until farmers’ payments have been finalized. “We reached this final decision after meetings
with all the relevant stakeholders,” he said, adding that farmers are complaining about their outstanding payments. He further noted that they looked carefully into the laws that regulate wool and
mohair before reaching the decision to suspend the licence. Phapano said they have also realized that wool and mohair farmers need to be involved in decision
making of their wool and mohair in order to improve the monitoring of the wool and mohair subsector. He said the ministry’s district marketing officers, who
function as marketing assistants should work together with the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security officers to assist farmers marketing groups to
establish their own committees, which will run the affairs of the marketing groups. And also facilitate capacity building programs for them. Phapano also said
the Marketing Assistants should facilitate issuance of wool and mohair permits. He indicated that the wool and mohair export permits shall be signed by the Director of Marketing or Marketing Managers.
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