Nthatuoa Koeshe  

THE government will ensure the completion of various arts projects that in the 2020/21 financial year Finance minister Moeketsi Majoro has said.

Majoro said this on Wednesday during his budget speech at parliament in Maseru.

Among the projects that are now supposed to be completed in the 2020/21 financial year is the National Museum whose construction started in 2015 and was supposed to have been finished in 2017 and the Semonkong Tourist Information Centre whose construction started in 2018.

Majoro said in the next three years, the government would shift its focus from large investment projects to marketing to ensure that the country attracts large volumes of tourists. He said the main target would be tourists from neighbouring South Africa and the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

He said this would be catered for through micro interventions in the region of M1 million to M5 million.

“This is intended to stimulate participation, visibility and the economic viability of music, film and television, fashion, theatre as well as arts and crafts,” Majoro said.

He said since February 2019, the Ministry of Tourism, Environment and Culture has been reorganising internally and reorganising its budget priorities to deliver on its primary economic mandate.

He said the Sehlabathebe National Park and its full integration into the Transfrontier Conservation Area will be prioritised along with the enactment of legislation to reduce the use of plastics to protect biodiversity.

Majoro added that the government was committed to a comprehensive and sustained enforcement programme for new and existing environmental legislation.

He added that they would deploy graduate youths into an inspectorate and compliance unit to boost revenue through fines for environmental offenders.

“Revised revenue estimates for 2020/21 include substantial increases in fines for companies and individual that break environmental laws. Our commitment to cleaning up Lesotho is a serious one,” Majoro said.