Africa-Press – Lesotho. Hothoe, in Lesotho, you will look for a job until looking for a job becomes your permanent job. Feela, ha nka etsoa letona la Trade and Industry, I can change this narrative.
The first thing I would do is to merge LNDC with BEDCO and establish a Development Bank for Basotho. Nka sebetsa ho hlanya, ebile ke sebetsa mahala. Nka sebetsa bosiu le motšeare.
Nka peka hore ho khaohe moo ho khoehlang. Ache, le Ntate Matekane a kare, “Hee monna ako theo-theole. Khilik! U so sebetsa haholo monna. ” What I mean is that should I be appointed Minister of Trade and Industry, I would work day and night to bring in the FDI, absolutely free of charge.
Mahala! But in all honesty I think the current Ministry of Trade and Industry is clouded by too many functions and roles. Tourism should be merged with sports because in modern-times international games bring in a lot of tourists.
The roles are so intertwined. By the way, before I forget, Lesotho really needs to gear-up and support South Africa’s bid to host the African circuit or leg of the Formula One calendar.
Come on guys, it’s long overdue. Africa is the only continent that does not host the Formula One race. However, having said that, South Africa seems to be preparing itself aggressively to host the Formula One race.
And Sir Lewis Hamilton is rallying behind this African campaign. Allendale Road in Midrand, Johannesburg, is already going through a massive construction leading to the Kyalami Racetrack.
I always drive past the Kyalami Race track on Sunday mornings. My Sunday morning routine consists of coffee and newspapers at Kyalami Corner then a drive past Kyalami Race track then Waterfall/ Mall of Africa.
I tell you South Africa is more than ready to host the F1. There are cranes all over Waterfall city surrounding the Mall of Africa. So, Lesotho better get its ducks in a row and be part of this campaign to bring the Formula One to South Africa.
I mean name one of the streets after Sir Lewis Hamilton. It will bring in a lot of tourists and potential investment because when the bid gets announced, hey, this will be a real game changer. It can revolutionise Moshoeshoe International Airport.
Speaking, of Moshoeshoe One International Airport, why isn’t there a hotel inside the premises of the Airport instead of those unsightly solar panels right in front of the airport? So unsightly!
So, the headline of this week’s opinion piece was supposed to be: ‘We are farting in the wind’, but I knew that my editor wouldn’t publish such a headline so it took me hours to come up with a more conservative one that you see above.
But we are indeed farting in the wind. Ntate Tšepo Tshola would have said, ‘We are pissing in the wind’. Why am I saying this? Our banks published their financial results and I just saw horror stories.
Ka nnete, we don’t have an economy to start with by virtue of studying the performance of most of ‘our banks’. Ka nnete ke bosul* feela. Most of these banks have very small balance sheets.
Li ntšitse mokotsolane. Ekare ha li je hantle. But how do we have a situation where our banks have an aggregate turn-over equal to 2.1 Billion. Turn over ea libanka? M2.1 billion?
Yes, one of the banks has an annual turn-over of M1.2 Billion. Another only managed to generate a profit of M5.9 million Maloti. Awe shapo! All our four banks have a combined asset base of about M19.8 billion.
US$1 billion to put it into perspective. Awe banna! But the most shocking thing was the aggregate amount of total deposits in all four banks. M13.3 billion! Bo-Ntate! Re bankile 13.3 Billion qha in all our four banks.
This is very disappointing. These are the things we need to see that we are a very playful nation and not productive at all. Talking about productivity, I forgot to mention an important point last week that has to do with nutrition.
Poor nutrition leads to poor productivity. In other words, poor nutrition leads to a very low GDP (Gross Domestic Product). Poor nutrition leads to a very low output of good and services.
Now, I always wonder why Lesotho is so obsessed with providing Manyolo’ (fertiliser), year in, year out. Lesotho is also obsessed with providing hybrid seeds to farmers because the seeds germinate quickly and mature fast.
Ke tsau-tsau. But has the Minister/Ministry of Agriculture ever stepped back and thought of this poison being fed to our people called fertiliser and hybrid seeds?
Hee guys! Why is there a sudden explosion of cancer in the country? Ke tsona hybrid seeds tsena le manyolo ana. We are killing our people. In fact, the most nutritious vegetable is sweet potato.
Maize is very low on nutrition content. So, why are we so obsessed with maize? Year in, year out, manyolo. Fok! Where were we? Yes, financial results.
So, I see that banks take the issue of publishing financial results quite seriously. Well, with the insistence of the Central Bank of Lesotho of course.
Yes, the Central Bank is doing a very good job to pressure the banks to publish the financial results. Otherwise, the public, customers wouldn’t know what they are dealing with.
Where their money is and how much it is. But this made me think, what about insurance companies? Why are insurance companies not forced to publish their financial results as well?
I mean this is only fair for ‘us’ the consumers/customers. We need to know the whereabouts of our money and what it is doing. It is only fair! In fact, include Vodacom and Econet in the picture.
What is the value of M-pesa and Eco-cash transactions? We need to know. Yes, the Central Bank needs to add pressure on the insurance companies because I know of one or two insurance companies that wouldn’t want us to know what the real picture is.
But, also, out of curiosity, why do we have so many insurance companies in the country? I mean, if you walk along Kingsway Road and throw a stone in the air, chances are, it will land on the head of an insurance broker or someone that deals with insurance.
What’s up with this insurance industry? It would really help us to understand what this industry is all about. So, really the Central Bank just needs to add pressure and force the insurance companies to publish results in April 2023.
We deserve to know. Lastly, well done the RFP for reinstating the National Tree Planting Day. Well done! But where are the national flags around the Cathedral Circle?
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