Africa-Press – Lesotho. Minister of Development Planning Hon. Selibe Mochoboroane, lead his ministerial delegation on a tour around some of the government’s projects to assess their
progress. During this tour, the delegation stopped into tracks to come across the machines that were intended to produce toothpicks, packed at Basotho Enterprises Development
Corporation (BEDCO) premises. The machines were bought by the government to capacitate Basotho with innovative skills in an effort to create employment.
The visit was thus intended to check if those machines have been used and how many Basotho were trained to use them. BEDCO Head of Enterprise Development Pesha Shale said the machines were bought by
Ministry of Small Business Development, Cooperatives and Marketing in 2019 to capacitate Basotho with business skills. “We are waiting for a formal endorsement for us to start training workshops,” he said, reacting to the
question of why they have not been used to date. Shale added that BEDCO has always had intention to conduct and facilitate trainings for Basotho under different
business sectors. He further said there are two other machines, “One is located at station area and it is used to sew duvets and the other one is placed at
Lesotho National Development Corporation (LNDC) Mohale’s Hoek, this one produces egg trays”. For his part, Hon. Mochoboroane said the ministry’s aim is that all the government projects
be completed so that they can answer to the needs of the nation. He said the machines have to be utilized for his ministry to know and track the record of
development in the country. “The toothpick machines together with duvet and egg trays machines’ cost was M25 million and now that these machines have not been
used, we can undoubtedly say the country lost M25 million,” he said. He continued to say that if the equipment was bought for capacity building, understanding is that it is going to contribute to the already existing
resources. Ministry of Development Planning Department of Project Site Management ‘Mannete Seoli explained that the department works on the big projects of the government where
they make follow-ups and assess the progress of those projects in different ministries. She added that their task is to work in collaboration with all government ministries to ensure that all those projects are completed successfully.
