Africa-Press – Lesotho. THE Sefate-Sa-Bophelo English Medium School this week walked away with a M100 000 prize for being the school with most parents who were paying fees using the Vodacom’s M-Pesa platform.
The telecommunications giant has been campaigning to boost the use of its mobile money platform since 2017, according to Managing Director of VCL Financial Services, Palesa Mphunyetsane.
Mphunyetsane said the campaign seeks to eliminate the long queues for parents and students to pay school fees. ’Makarabo Mohato, who is the Finance Officer at Sefate-Sa-Bophelo, said before the use of M-Pesa to pay fees, they had the challenge of serving a large number of people in a day.
She said the biggest challenge was collecting the fees in cash. Mohato said they had to stay behind after working hours to count the money. “Our safety was at stake,” she said.
Mohato said they then asked the principal to at least introduce other modes of payment other than cash. RSL swindled THREE Lesotho Revenue Services (RSL) workers appeared before the Leribe Magistrate’s Court on Monday charged with swindling the taxman of over M1 million.
Magistrate Mpotla Koaesa remanded Nxetane Kheswa, Ngaka Leteba and Ramaqele Khechane in custody. The court said the three siphoned M1 million from the RSL by presenting false statements at the border posts where they were stationed.
The three’s cross-cutting duties and responsibilities were to clear goods in line with customs’ procedures and processes. “They were to raise assessment or penalties on imported goods where there is non-conformity with customs requirements,” read the court papers.
The charge sheet says Kheswa, who was stationed at Maputsoe Bridge as the customs inspector, did not have rights to cancel payments in the customs declaration systems of the RSL and he made Leteba and Khechane do it as they had such rights.
The charge sheet says two team leaders, Leteba who was stationed at Caledonspoort and Khechane who was deployed at Maputsoe Bridge, by virtue of their positions had full access to manoeuvre the customs declaration systems of RSL including effecting cancellations of payments in the system.
The two tendered their resignations from the RSL following the launch of the investigations. DC youth leader speaks THE newly elected Democratic Congress (DC) Youth League leader, Pheello Sehlabaka, says he will work hard to get Lesotho’s youth policy reviewed.
Sehlabaka, 30, was elected at the DC Youth League elective conference held in Matsieng, Lesotho’s royal village, last Saturday. Sehlabaka said he is willing to “put party politics aside and meet with all people who are responsible for youth development to get a review of the policy”.
“This is because we have lost track of what has been happening since the current government took charge,” Sehlabaka said.
The government adopted the National Youth Development Policy in 2018, which provides a national blueprint on youth development and aims at facilitating comprehensive engagement of the youth for the country’s socio-economic development and political participation.
The youth policy was launched in 2002. A survey conducted in 2014 revealed that only seven percent of the country’s youths were running businesses while 49 percent were interested in running businesses but did not have access to information, skills or funds to do so. Sehlabaka said his other task will be to mobilise youths countrywide to ensure that the DC gets back to power, he said. – Mpolai Makhetha
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