Africa-Press – Lesotho. Parliament’s Natural Resources committee will today start an inquiry into the government’s relationship with Metsi ke Bophelo, a water company fronted by a South African billionaire.
The probe comes as Metsi ke Bophelo, which is driven by Mashudu Elias Ramano, prepares to host a two-day Hydrogen and Digital Future Conference and Expo in Maseru from October 12.
The company says the conference is meant to help Basotho discuss ways to unlock the value of its abundant and pristine water resources. There is talk of hydropower generation and other benefits to Lesotho.
But the fact that Prime Minister Sam Matekane and the government have enthusiastically bought into the idea and thrown their weight behind the conference has riled some opposition parties. The parties accuse Matekane of pushing to benefit a company owned by a fellow billionaire.
They also say they fear that the government is endorsing a private company that is essentially pushing its own agenda at the expense of Basotho who are not getting much benefit from their water.
Their concern is that the government is endorsing a private company pushing for “the harvesting of energy by using Basotho waters without following due processes as enshrined in the instruments from Lesotho’s water and energy frameworks”.
There have also been allegations that some senior government officials could be playing a behind-the-scenes role to push the company’s agenda. It is those allegations and accusations that have informed the Natural Resources committee’s inquiry.
The committee’s chairperson, Moeketsi Motšoane, confirmed the hearing but was guarded on the nitty-gritties. He said the committee will call officials from the Ministry of Natural Resources.
“We simply want the ministry to explain to us their relationship with this company so that we understand the kind of collaboration they are having,” Motšoane said.
“We also want them to respond to the grievances of these people who have written to us asking us to investigate the relationship between them.
“Once we have those, we will have further questions based on the knowledge we will have gathered.
The conference is meant to bring together stakeholders in the water sector to discuss means to create business opportunities and make Lesotho a regional supplier of hydropower.
It will be officially opened by King Letsie III. Metsi ke Bophelo’s spokesperson, Nthakoana Ngatane, said the company is not a project “but a campaign that is planned to help Basotho to unlock all the water opportunities”.
“Water has many opportunities and the campaign is planned to ask Basotho what they want to do with the water,” Ngatane told thepost.
“Water engineering and technologies will be realised.
” She also dismissed as unfounded the opposition’s insinuation that Metsi ke Bophelo’s intended projects “will destroy the climate”.
“They are not telling the truth. We are going to use clean and green energy alone,” she said.
The opposition had also charged that Metsi ke Bophelo was registered weeks after the government announced their collaboration to hold the conference and after calling on Lesotho’s diplomats to seek sponsorship for it.
“It is not true that we registered after the launch, our registration applications were sent three weeks before,” Ngatane said.
“We also wanted Metsi ke Bophelo to be registered under non-profit making organisations, but the trade department has suspended the non-profit making organisations’ applications and that forced us to go under profit making.”
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