Lesotho’s private sector forges ties with FS business
MASERU — The Private Sector Foundation of Lesotho (PSFL) has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Mangaung Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) which seeks to improve the sharing of business information.
The PSFL spokesperson, ’Mamakamane Makamane, told the Lesotho Times that the foundation felt the need to forge relationships with their counterparts considering that Free State is the main supplier of goods entering the Kingdom.
Makamane also said the PSFL, aware that many tourists who travel around South Africa seldom come to Lesotho, has proposed to the MCCI that there should be a joint coordination of tourist attraction between Free State and Lesotho.
“We already have informal working relationships with the Free State business community but we felt that we should engage the associations as coordinators to formally cement these relationships,” Makamane said.
“There are many issues that should be discussed between Lesotho and Free State and we can jointly create a platform to talk about them,” she said.
“For example, there are many services and goods that we can supply to Free State but we have not marketed them enough for people in the Free State to see them.”
Makamane said platforms that will be created after the signing of the memorandum of understanding between the two chambers will also include relevant government ministries.
“It is an established fact that we buy almost all food from Free State but the qualities of soil we have are not different. This means that the more we engage each other the more we will exchange agricultural skills with Free State farmers and perhaps end the problems we have in agricultural inputs.”
She said the food market is open in South Africa as its most productive provinces, Free State and Limpopo, do not meet the market demand.
“So, with Lesotho having soil of the same quality as that of Free State we can produce enough food and sell locally and in South Africa with the help of the very South Africans who are skilled in agriculture,” she said.
One of the burning issues that both chambers will discuss in their future meetings include how to overcome problems at the borders where trucks delivering goods have to wait for days to be cleared by customs.
“Both Lesotho and Free State traders are suffering because of long queues at the borders. We need to urgently discuss this issue, together with the relevant government ministries, until we find a lasting solution.”
Makamane said their first meeting to unpack the memorandum of understanding will be in Maseru within two weeks, on a day yet to be specified.
Government ministries will be invited.
Comment by lonele on 15 August 2012:
The PSFL must give MCCI 30 days to clear that mess at the borders. We cannot be made to wait so many hours and, some times, days just to clear our goods. It’s like we’re being punished by South Africans for giving them business! Our business life is a living hell because of that situation out there. MCCI must also explain why their country had to impose the so called ‘clearing agents’ on us at the borders with so much money to pay for the services we could do and used to do for ourselves when we cross with goods.
If the status quo remains after 30 days, I’ll regards this as a wake-up call to Basotho. I’ll know it’s about time we establish our own factories and manufacture everything for our own consumption. We have already started building our own shopping malls. I don’t know by how much, but certainly, traffic to Bloem for shopping has significantly dropped, and sooner or later, traffic to go and stock commodities in SA will similarly drop. SA, I warn you, you will cry fault if you don’t change now. Amen!