REPORTS that former trade minister Popane Lebesa benefited from a government scheme meant to pay rent for students studying in South Africa are quite worrying.
A respected South African newspaper, the Mail and Guardian, reported on Friday that Lebesa was the business partner of Bothata Mahlala, who is suspected of defrauding the scheme of millions of rands in 2009.
The two’s company acted as the middleman in paying for students’ accommodation in Bloemfontein and Johannesburg in 2008 in a multimillion maloti deal with the government’s National Manpower Development Secretariat (NMDS).
In one instance Mahlala was contracted by the NMDS to pay rent for more than 500 Basotho students studying at the University of Free State and Central University of Technology in Bloemfontein and the University of Johannesburg in 2009.
The NMDS deposited the cash into an account of a company called Four Rivers, owned by Mahlala.
He however failed to pay the landlords.
When we broke the story in 2009, the government had threatened to take legal action against Mahlala.
We are surprised that it has taken this long with no tangible movement in getting to grips with this monumental swindle.
Basotho must also demand answers from Lebesa.
At the time when the company was getting these huge amounts of cash, Lebesa was still serving as trade minister.
Was this not a clear case of conflict of interest?
To what extent can government ministers engage in business deals with a government he serves?
We are of the strong view that government ministers should not be involved in companies that provide service or goods to the government.
They cannot be both referee and player at the same time.
Lebesa might therefore find himself in a squeeze to justify his business dealings during his tenure as trade minister.
His explanation that “the company only operated for one year and was not involved in any disappearance of money” sounds extremely tepid.
While his explanation might be correct, his reputation might have been soiled by association.
As a cabinet minister he should have known which deals to get himself into and which ones he should have avoided like a plague.
This students’ deal was one such deal.
We suspect there is more to this story.
Lesotho is an extremely poor country where the majority of our people live on less than one US dollar a day.
It is for that reason that we have, as a newspaper, embarked on a virtual crusade against any pilferage of state resources.
The NMDS paid huge amounts of money to middlemen in South Africa to secure accommodation for Basotho students.
This is an institution that has been wobbling from one crisis to another.
While part of the blame lies with former students neglecting their duties of servicing their loans it is also clear that well connected individuals within the state machinery used their influence to milk the scheme.
Mahlala and all those connected to him must be dragged to the courts of law to answer charges of fraud.
It is only in their interest that they clear their names.
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