{"id":37621,"date":"2024-01-10T18:09:47","date_gmt":"2024-01-10T18:09:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/remember-the-enrich-goat"},"modified":"2024-01-10T18:26:53","modified_gmt":"2024-01-10T18:26:53","slug":"remember-the-enrich-goat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/remember-the-enrich-goat","title":{"rendered":"Remember the Enrich goat?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. <\/strong><\/span>TWO weeks ago, Muckraker was mildly pinched for merely reminding some that Enrich Stores was not their goat. Little did she know that someone was busy planning to appropriate this dead two-legged goat to make it a national problem.<\/p>\n

And so here we are, on the verge of taking delivery of a dead goat.<\/p>\n

The Lesotho National Development Corporation (LNDC) is considering a M15 million bailout for Enrich Stores.<\/p>\n

The LNDC is a state company and the M15 million is essentially public funds. So we could say public funds are just about to be used to rescue a private company that was epically mismanaged until it collapsed.<\/p>\n

In other words, it will cost us M15 million to try and revive a goat that has been declared dead by its owners, managers, directors, creditors and banks. Muckraker is saying someone is about to use a state company\u2019s funds to do a Lazarus on this goat.<\/p>\n

The issue is not whether this goat can be revived but, rather, why state funds should be used to resuscitate it. Enrich was not a victim of some disaster beyond the control of its management and board. It died because its management was proudly incompetent.<\/p>\n

The board was woefully inexperienced and stunningly nai\u0308ve.<\/p>\n

The result was the blind leading the blind into a dog-eat-dog that is the retail sector.<\/p>\n

They were running a supermarket with the attitude of a spaza shop. No, the majority of spaza shop owners are way smarter than those people who were masquerading as managers of Enrich.<\/p>\n

Even if Enrich had collapsed due to events and circumstances beyond its control, there is no justification for bailing it out using public funds.<\/p>\n

Companies that closed due to the Covid lockdown, were left to die. The few that were lucky enough to get some state help received M20 000 each. Companies in the informal sector, Lesotho\u2019s most important sector and biggest employer, received a paltry M500.<\/p>\n

And those were just a few of the tens of thousands upended by the pandemic.<\/p>\n

Yet someone wants to use M15 million from a parastatal to resurrect a company strangulated by its own management. You have to ask what is so special about Enrich that public funds should be used to save it. Good luck getting the answers because there are none.<\/p>\n

Enrich was not a special invention or innovation. It doesn\u2019t make anything special.<\/p>\n

There is nothing particularly unique about its shareholding structure or business model.<\/p>\n

Its owners are Basotho just like the other Basotho whose shops and businesses have collapsed. Many Basotho-owned companies are dying every day but no one from the government or a parastatal is rushing with a first aid kit worth millions.<\/p>\n

Great dreams are shattered all the time. Muckraker repeats: what the hell is special about Enrich that it should be pampered with state funds?<\/p>\n

A few things are not debatable. First, no one at the LNDC or the government would dare to use their own money to rescue Enrich. The only reason why someone is willing to even entertain the idea of rescuing a company as dead as a dodo is because this is state money and they lose nothing if it goes down the drain.<\/p>\n

Never entrust any major financial decision to anyone who doesn\u2019t stand to lose something substantial if they make a wrong or reckless decision. In this case, those pushing for this bailout think they can simply shrug their shoulders if Enrich swallows the M15 million and still dies. As the Enrich coffin is being wheeled to the cemetery they can shed some fake tears and claim that they were doing it to \u201chelp Basotho\u201d.<\/p>\n

They will pay for their exuberant mistake with just some little regret and a report to explain what went wrong.<\/p>\n

Second, there is a reason why no private banker is willing to lend Enrich any money. And it\u2019s not that banks don\u2019t like supporting local companies. They supported Enrich and their fingers are burning.<\/p>\n

Third, this bailout is not about saving jobs because no one has lifted a finger to rescue many other troubled companies that employ more people.<\/p>\n

The key question is who is pushing for this bailout and what is their interest? Get the answer to that and you will be on a decent chicken bus to the truth.<\/p>\n

The story, a bizarre one whispered to Muckraker by a little bird, is that it is the LNDC that first approached Enrich after noticing that the company was now on its knees. Phew!<\/p>\n

Which other troubled companies has the LNDC ever approached? Probably sensing that the LNDC was some Father Christmas bearing presents, the Enrich management admitted that the company was in doldrums and needed M25 million to survive.<\/p>\n

Do you know why they asked for M25 million?<\/p>\n

Well, they sincerely believe money grows on trees and government money is there to be spent.<\/p>\n

They treated Enrich, an asset owned by thousands of people, the same way.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Lesotho<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. TWO weeks ago, Muckraker was mildly pinched for merely reminding some that Enrich Stores was not their goat. Little did she know that someone was busy planning to appropriate this dead two-legged goat to make it a national problem. And so here we are, on the verge of taking delivery of a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":37620,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[233,246,245],"class_list":["post-37621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-lesotho","tag-lesotho"],"yoast_head":"\nRemember the Enrich goat? - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"TWO weeks ago, Muckraker was mildly pinched for merely reminding some that Enrich Stores was not their goat. 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