{"id":13153,"date":"2022-04-18T09:38:57","date_gmt":"2022-04-18T09:38:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesotho-diamond-academy-re-launched"},"modified":"2022-04-18T10:09:14","modified_gmt":"2022-04-18T10:09:14","slug":"lesotho-diamond-academy-re-launched","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesotho-diamond-academy-re-launched","title":{"rendered":"Lesotho Diamond Academy re-launched"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Lesotho. <\/strong><\/span>THE Lesotho Diamond Academy was re-launched on Tuesday after a 10-year hiatus. The academy shut its doors in 2012 after only two years of operation with most students pulling out due to lack of funding by the government.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking at the re-launch, the academy\u2019s CEO, Relebohile Molefe, said they had enrolled 100 students by the time they were forced to close shop in 2012.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAlthough it has been a rough path, we managed to re-launch the school again through the support from the Ministry of Mining,\u201d Molefe said.<\/p>\n<p>The Minister of Mining, Serialong Qoo, said for years foreign-owned companies had benefited immensely from mining diamonds in Lesotho but giving too little to Basotho.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs we are re launching this academy we are declaring war against people who have benefited from the diamonds of Basotho while Basotho were earning very little,\u201d Qoo said.<\/p>\n<p>Mining companies just dig up the diamonds and export them to Antwerp, Belgium, as raw as they are, which limits Basotho\u2019s role to just digging. Qoo\u2019s concern is that there is no beneficiating taking place to enhance Lesotho\u2019s economy and create jobs.<\/p>\n<p>He said through the collaboration with the responsible parliamentary committee, they will fully support the academy. \u201cThis has been our long-term dream with the late Mpalipali Molefe who is the founder of this academy to spur the economy of Lesotho through the mining industry,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>He said the Ministry of Mining is \u201cready to set the platforms which will allow Basotho to participate in the diamond business\u201d. The minister applauded Molefe\u2019s family for the good and brave work they have done over the years.<\/p>\n<p>He said they should get the licence to extract all the stones they identified as valuable products. The Chairman of the Parliamentary Natural Resources Committee, Kimetso Mathaba, applauded the management for resuscitating the academy.<\/p>\n<p>Mathaba said political turmoil in the country led to the closing of the academy which spoiled the vision of the founder to promote knowledge and skills in diamond works.<\/p>\n<p>Mathaba applauded the minister of mining who realised the special role the academy could play in the development of Lesotho. \u201cThe academy will help in eradicating poverty and creating employment,\u201d Mathaba said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHowever, our government is failing to support us in our skills so that we can create jobs for Basotho,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe still have a long journey to take to ensure that the diamonds before being sold outside the country pass through the academy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201d He said the diamond industry has impacted most countries\u2019 economies positively because they were able to manage their resources.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur diamonds are depleting. About 90 percent has gone and still the management of this industry is poor,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI strongly believe that the industry will improve.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\">Lesotho<\/a> Follow <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/\">Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Lesotho. THE Lesotho Diamond Academy was re-launched on Tuesday after a 10-year hiatus. The academy shut its doors in 2012 after only two years of operation with most students pulling out due to lack of funding by the government. Speaking at the re-launch, the academy\u2019s CEO, Relebohile Molefe, said they had enrolled 100 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":13152,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5,8,16],"tags":[233,246,245],"class_list":["post-13153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-economy","category-homepage-english","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-lesotho","tag-lesotho"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Lesotho Diamond Academy re-launched - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"THE Lesotho Diamond Academy was re-launched on Tuesday after a 10-year hiatus. The academy shut its doors in 2012 after ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesotho-diamond-academy-re-launched\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lesotho Diamond Academy re-launched\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"THE Lesotho Diamond Academy was re-launched on Tuesday after a 10-year hiatus. The academy shut its doors in 2012 after ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesotho-diamond-academy-re-launched\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lesotho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-04-18T09:38:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-04-18T10:09:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/04\/img-625d38abd58af.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1536\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesotho-diamond-academy-re-launched#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesotho-diamond-academy-re-launched\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Lesotho Diamond Academy re-launched\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-04-18T09:38:57+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-04-18T10:09:14+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesotho-diamond-academy-re-launched\"},\"wordCount\":472,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesotho-diamond-academy-re-launched#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/04\/img-625d38abd58af.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Lesotho\",\"Lesotho\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"economy\",\"homepage-english\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesotho-diamond-academy-re-launched#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesotho-diamond-academy-re-launched\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesotho-diamond-academy-re-launched\",\"name\":\"Lesotho Diamond Academy re-launched - Lesotho\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesotho-diamond-academy-re-launched#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesotho-diamond-academy-re-launched#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/04\/img-625d38abd58af.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-04-18T09:38:57+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-04-18T10:09:14+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"THE Lesotho Diamond Academy was re-launched on Tuesday after a 10-year hiatus. The academy shut its doors in 2012 after ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesotho-diamond-academy-re-launched#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesotho-diamond-academy-re-launched\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesotho-diamond-academy-re-launched#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/04\/img-625d38abd58af.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/04\/img-625d38abd58af.jpg\",\"width\":1536,\"height\":1024,\"caption\":\"Lesotho Diamond Academy re-launched\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesotho-diamond-academy-re-launched#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Lesotho Diamond Academy re-launched\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/\",\"name\":\"Lesotho\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"cfeditoren\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Lesotho Diamond Academy re-launched - Lesotho","description":"THE Lesotho Diamond Academy was re-launched on Tuesday after a 10-year hiatus. The academy shut its doors in 2012 after ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesotho-diamond-academy-re-launched","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Lesotho Diamond Academy re-launched","og_description":"THE Lesotho Diamond Academy was re-launched on Tuesday after a 10-year hiatus. The academy shut its doors in 2012 after ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesotho-diamond-academy-re-launched","og_site_name":"Lesotho","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa","article_published_time":"2022-04-18T09:38:57+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-04-18T10:09:14+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1536,"height":1024,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/04\/img-625d38abd58af.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesotho-diamond-academy-re-launched#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesotho-diamond-academy-re-launched"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"Lesotho Diamond Academy re-launched","datePublished":"2022-04-18T09:38:57+00:00","dateModified":"2022-04-18T10:09:14+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesotho-diamond-academy-re-launched"},"wordCount":472,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesotho-diamond-academy-re-launched#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/04\/img-625d38abd58af.jpg","keywords":["Africa Press","Africa Press-Lesotho","Lesotho"],"articleSection":["all news","economy","homepage-english","twitter"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesotho-diamond-academy-re-launched#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesotho-diamond-academy-re-launched","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesotho-diamond-academy-re-launched","name":"Lesotho Diamond Academy re-launched - Lesotho","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesotho-diamond-academy-re-launched#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesotho-diamond-academy-re-launched#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/04\/img-625d38abd58af.jpg","datePublished":"2022-04-18T09:38:57+00:00","dateModified":"2022-04-18T10:09:14+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"THE Lesotho Diamond Academy was re-launched on Tuesday after a 10-year hiatus. The academy shut its doors in 2012 after ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesotho-diamond-academy-re-launched#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesotho-diamond-academy-re-launched"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesotho-diamond-academy-re-launched#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/04\/img-625d38abd58af.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/04\/img-625d38abd58af.jpg","width":1536,"height":1024,"caption":"Lesotho Diamond Academy re-launched"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesotho-diamond-academy-re-launched#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Lesotho Diamond Academy re-launched"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/","name":"Lesotho","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"cfeditoren"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13153\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}