By Neo Kolane
Hundreds of farmers have approached the High Court to force the government to pay them millions of Maloti for the wool and mohair they supplied to the Lesotho Wool Centre (LWC) at Thaba Bosiu in 2018/2019.
The farmers are still owed for their produce delivered to the centre under a deal between the Lesotho National Wool and Mohair Growers Association (LNWMGA) and Maseru Dawning, a company owned by Chinese businessman, Stone Shi.
Maseru Dawning owns 25 percent of the centre while the association controls 75 percent.
The chairperson of the Skylight Wool and Mohair Association, which filed the court application on behalf the farmers, Teboho Tṧese, said 17 shearing sheds under them are currently owed more than M17 million.
Tṧese noted that another organisation under their affiliation, Bobatsi Wool Association, is still owed more than M5 million. Other cooperatives are owed various amounts.
In their application filed in the High Court by Skylight Wool and Mohair Association on August 15 2023, the farmer cite the government, the ministry of agriculture and food security, the ministry of finance, the attorney general, Maseru Dawning Trading Company (PTY) Ltd and Lesotho Wool Centre as first to sixth respondents respectively.
The applicants say they have a legitimate expectation that the government will pay for all the wool and mohair delivered to the Lesotho Wool Centre in 2018/2019.
“This is consistent with the promise, guarantee and assurance made by the government of Lesotho,” they note in their application.
They further submit that the government, the ministry of agriculture and food security, the ministry of finance, should facilitate their payments.
The case is yet to be heard by Justice Makara.
At the time of the deal, Shi reportedly informed the farmers that his company would sell directly to international firms and this would enable him to cut out middlemen and increase their profit margins.
Supplying their wool and mohair through the centre would also help significantly reduce the cost of transport for farmers to auction floors in then Port Elizabeth, South Africa.
The government backed Shi after it introduced new wool and mohair regulations in 2018 barring farmers from taking their produce to South Africa.
Under the now-nullified regulations, it was illegal for anyone to engage in the business of wool and mohair: shearing shed; brokering; testing; trading and auctioning; processing; and exporting “unless the person has obtained a license to do so from the Minister responsible….
Instead, the regulations which came into effect on May 4 2018, compelled them to take it to Lesotho Wool Centre.
But, according to the disgruntled farmers, this was the beginning of their woes as the centre gave them much less than they were given by BKB Brokers in South Africa.
The chairman of the Mokhotlong based Bobatsi Wool Association, Phallang Mosala, told theReporter this week that failure by the government to pay them since 2018/2019 was severely crippling their operations.
Mosala said they took their wool to Lesotho Wool Centre after Shi promised to pay them in United States dollars and they saw this as a better deal than selling to SA brokers.
He noted that Shi had gone to woolsheds around the country promising farmers better profits and this gave them hope.
“We then took 116 bales of wool to the centre in Thaba Bosiu in 2019 but the association has not received any Loti since then,” he indicated.
A dejected Mosala said as the Bobatsi Wool Association they had lost more than M5 million in revenue.
The non-payment had also seen some members of the association resigning out of frustration.
“We lost 36 members out of the 120 we had then.”
Mosala further indicated that the loss of income had also led to the falling apart of families as some women accused their spouses of giving away their wool for free.
“Some wives left their families to go and work mainly in Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa, which is close to us. This disrupted families,” he added.
The chairperson of the Peka Growers Wool and Mohair Association, ‘Maliengoane Ntoi, also confirmed their members had still not been paid.
However, she could not readily provide the number of members nor the amounts owed during a recent visit to the area by this publication.
For his part, LNWMGA spokesperson Khotsang Moshoeshoe expressed doubts that the farmers would be paid because Shi has now been hired by the Lesotho Highlands Water Project Phase II “so he has no capacity to pay the farmers”.
Moshoeshoe also disclosed that 127 farmers from Ha Jantuoe in the Mokhotlong district have not been paid for their 2018/2019 wool deliveries.
“The government introduced a Chinese businessman, Shone Shi, who now is unable to pay the wool and mohair farmers,” he said.
Moshoeshoe urged Prime Minister Sam Matekane to form a committee to investigate the project, which was given blessings by the previous Thomas Thabane-led government.
An assistant marketing officer in the ministry of agriculture and food security, Thapelo Moeti says a total of 1 669 farmers from 13 associations in five districts across the country are still owed about M11,650,682 by the government for 2018/2019.
He, however, could not comment on the matter further as it was now in court.
During a question and answer session in the National Assembly on October 26 2023, then acting agriculture and food security minister Ntoi Rapapa said M10.5 million was paid out to wool and mohair farmers for the 2018/2019 deliveries.
He stated that another M134,598 was disbursed by the government but it did not reach farmers at Hloahloeng in the Mohale’s Hoek district because it was erroneously deposited to the account of a wrong woolshed in Qacha’s Nek.
“The responsible bank has asked to solve the matter.”
Rapapa added that another amount of M301, 981 was returned to the government because the 101 farmers who were expected to be paid did not pitch up.
He further noted that a centre at Hloahloeng in Mohale’s Hoek still has to verify that 38 farmers have to be paid for supplying wool to the centre during the same period.
“These farmers will be paid when the process of compiling and verifying the list of those who are owed is confirmed by LWC (Lesotho Wool Centre),” Rapapa explained.
