Natural resources minister, Mohlomi Moleko, this week ruffled feathers when he told a mining forum that the current arrangement under which the government has between 25-30 percent shareholding in the country’s diamond mines was unfair to the investors.
He did not stop there. He went on to tell the gathering that government owns a 30 percent stake in one of the local diamond mines, but collects than 60 percent of the profits.
“This is an unfair deal to the investors but more beneficial to a country whose only contribution is its natural resources not cash.”
We would like believe that the honourable minister was briefed according before delivering the speech. So we ask ourselves what his motive was, for omitting to disclose the add-ons that bring the figure to 60 percent. He knows very well that one of them is taxes, a wide range of them.
The question is, why does the minister feel we should commend or sympathise with mines for paying taxes? Is that not their responsibility?
What exactly is this minister playing at? We will know; it is just a matter of time.
Of course we all appreciate the importance of mining in Lesotho. Commercial mining provides employment and transfers skills to workers and can also be an important source of social services to remote communities.
Like in the rest of Africa, mineral resources contribute a significant amount of fiscal revenues, foreign currency reserves and employment to the country. Clearly, the mining and natural resources sector is critical in driving economic growth and development in Lesotho.
So, we ask again: who benefits most from Africa’s natural resources? The value from the natural resources goes to the West and East Asia, rather than Africa, exacerbating poverty in Africa, despite our abundance of natural resources.
Read that again, dear minister since you are such a patriot and true Pan-Africanist.
