By ‘Majirata Latela
The ministry of small business, cooperatives and marketing yesterday announced the suspension of Maseru Dawning Trading’s brokering licence following its failure to settle wool and mohair farmers’ payments for the years 2018/2019 and 2019/2020.
The announcement was made today by the principal secretary of the ministry, Tankiso Phapano, who said they have reached the conclusion to suspend the licence following three consecutive meetings that were held by the ministry where they were trying to get to the bottom of why Basotho farmers are still complaining of non-payment.
“I called Standard Lesotho Bank, Maseru Dawning and farmers to a meeting which revealed that reconciliations were the problem between the two parties, and I personally told them to go and solve those problems and make sure they pay the farmers what is due to them.
“I gave them time frames but they failed to meet them. That is the reason we have resolved to suspend the licence to give Maseru Dawning time to settle the payments so that we can move forward without any problems going further,” Phapano said.
He added that the ministry is therefore launching an investigation into what happened that led to farmers not receiving their payments. He said they are also working on making sure that the ministry has its own data that will be used when problems such as this one arise.
