Press Statement on Welcoming the PS- Mr. Soaile Mochaba

 The Management and Staff of Mining Officially Welcome the New PS

  By Rorisang David Mahlo

When the rains of blessings fall on government Ministries, the Ministry of Mining was not an exception to welcome the Chief Accounting Officer; a humble servant and a guru in the financial and economic fields of studies in the mining sector. 

After an estimated period of about a month, the Management and the subordinate staff of Ministry of Mining, officially welcomed their new Principal Secretary (PS) by the name of Mr. Soaile Mochaba on Wednesday the 20^th of September 2017 in the morning hours of a sunny day. 

In his short address to the Mining employees, Mr. Mochaba expressed his happiness to join the Staff of Mining though due to the nature and complexity of his work, he was forced to hit the ground running. “So I envisage to visit your respective individual offices so as to know you better and that on its own, will be another way to acquaint myself with the environment and the location of your offices,” says Mochaba.

On behalf of Mining Staff `Mathabo Ntja also expressed her warm words of appreciation to welcome the New PS. “I cannot wait to see you coming to our offices, we have a number of problems which we optimistically hope that your coming to our offices will provide a one on one platform of solving our problems once and for all” reported Ntja.   

Mr. Mochaba is a national of the Kingdom of Lesotho born in September 17, 1969 and bred in Maseru District. He is the second born child of the late Mr. and Mrs.  Mochaba. Now the bread winner - the family man and father his two Kids.  

He joined the Ministry of mining towards the end of August straight from the Private sector where he spent most of his career life pushing hard to make his presence felt in the corporate world. 

Amongst many excellent skills embedded in Mr. Mochaba`s credentials, is his mammoth and the wealth of experience from the economic and financial backgrounds that he brings with him in the office of Chief Accounting officer for Ministry of Mining. One will remember that most failing PS`s in most cases is due to lack of proper understanding and a poor financial accountability on the government coffers. For him, his experience speaks volumes on his behalf. 

The most recent job position occupied by Mr. Mochaba just before joining Ministry of Mining was as Finance Manager at Letshego Financial Services Lesotho Limited in 2016. While a few years before then he also served the only Water and Sewage services Company in Lesotho currently known as WASCO in the capacity of Finance Director.  This is to mention but a few.

Mr. Mochaba also contributed academically as the Lecturer in the financial field of studies grooming a number of Basotho students learning with the Center for Accounting Studies based in Maseru between 2011 and 2013. “I felt very grateful to meet some of my students serving in this Ministry and there so many of them all over the country,” says Mochaba.

Most importantly even the majority of most local Banks can also bear the witness on what kind of financial practitioner Mr. Mochaba is in the Banking sector. He once served Lesotho First national Bank in range of different capacities including being the Deputy Chief Executive officer, head of sales and chief Financial Officer between 2007 and 2010.

Furthermore the only government department except Ministry of Mining that had a bit of a taste of his performance is the Ministry of Local Government and that was way back in 1997. Since then he switched his full strength to serve and offer his knowledge to boost the financial and economic sectors in the private sector of Lesotho.

However, Mr. Mochaba has not been an island in his career. He has been performing his work aligned with professional institutions that guided and monitored his performance and application of ethics by subscribing to the following institutions:

   Professional Membership

ü                     Chartered Accountant member of the Lesotho Institute of Accounts (LIA).

  Board Membership

ü                    Chairman of the Finance and audit committee of the Lesotho Red Cross Society.

ü                    Non- executive director of Liqhobong Mining Development Company (2013 -2016).

Finally, Mr Mochaba has been nominated by the current 2017 reining coalition government of The National Unity, Reconciliation, Peace and Stability, to be the Chief Accounting Officer in the Ministry of Mining.   

Casting an Inverstment Net to the 2017 Africa Down Under Magnitudes

  By Rorisang David Mahlo

In his very first international attempt of duty calling activities in the Mining sector, Honourable Keketso Sello – the Minister of Mining made his first cut and unforgettable mark to open all business doors for the potential and interested investors in  Lesotho`s Mining sector. 

The Honourable Minister Sello, recently threw a net to attract potential international investors in the 2017 Australian Africa Down Under (ADU) Conference, to come to his Mother land for unexplored and untapped mining opportunities.  This year`s conference stretched from the 6^th to the 8^th of September 2017 in Perth - Western Australia. 

In his address, Hon. Sello assured the conference that it is not by mistake that Lesotho is profiled as one of the top ten (10) high quality diamond producing countries in the entire world. “It is by virtue of value and the quality gem stones the country is producing” said the Minister. Specifically, the diamond sub sector is known to have “a total of 405 bodies of Kimberlite pipes, and dykes, of which a very few of them have already acquired mining investors,” said the Minister. 

In addition to that, Minister Sello went on to showcase Lesotho as a dynamically gifted country by uttering to the conference delegates that besides the diamond sub sector; currently Lesotho is mining a variety of different kinds of industrial minerals like Dolerite, Sand tone, and Clay, whose byproducts attract regional and international markets.

On top of that, the Minister told the conference about the ongoing different methods of national exploration activities aimed at discovering even more minerals available in the country. To mention but a few, the Minister reported that, there is a Geo-Chemical Mapping project and a Remote sensing technique: in exploration for Rare Earth Elements (REEs) and Platinum Group Elements (PGEs).

Most interestingly and as an important part of diversification, Hon. Sello indicated that the country has recently signed Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with two Mining Companies for the exploration of two kinds of mineral deposits: 

      Firstly, MOA has been signed with Mansimanzi Mining (PTY) Ltd to explore for coal around Qhalasi and Matebeleng in Mohale’s Hoek district on Southern Side of the country and evaluate the potential for commercial exploitation.

   The subsequent MOA was signed with Thaba Naledi Energy to explore the existence and the magnitude of Shale Gas between Peka and Mokhotlong on the northern side of the Country.

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The Hon. Minister`s closing remarks to the conference was that “I am sincerely standing on this podium today, to firstly call every one interested and capable of doing mining business in Lesotho to come on board and secondly to invite you all to share in the development of Lesotho`s vast mineral resources as some companies like Lucapa can attest to what I have just said here,” said Hon. Sello.

Consecutively after that, the Chief Executive Officer for Lucapa (Mothae Mine) Mr. Stephen Wetherall also mounted the podium to shed light on his little tasteful experience of how things are done in the Mountain Kingdom of Lesotho.

In his words as everybody was listening very attentively, Wetherall could not hesitate but publicly thanked the government of Lesotho through Hon. Keketso Sello for considering Lupapa as one of the potential Mining companies to do Mining business in Lesotho. “We are not going to let you down Hon. Minister” Wetheral emphasised. 

Secondly, he promised and publicly committed his company to run mining operations by Lesotho’s Mining Code, being the Mines and Mineral Act of 2005 and bearing in mind the international standards governing the Mining Sector as their company is one of the Australian Listed Companies.

In a similar manner, in his speech to Africa Down Under delegates, he seconded what the Hon. Minister had said about Lesotho`s mineral Potential and attested that; “Lucapa`s decision to jump all these countries between Lesotho and Australia was solely for the interest of uncovering the potential that Mothae has underground- you are just yet about to witness this in practice,” said Wetherall. 

He also strongly demonstrated that Lucapa heard it and seen it happening with the first three giant mining companies that came before Mothae, making their strides in Lesotho`s mining sector and “so why not Lucapa then, we must follow the trend if not to set a new one” said Wetherall.

He also concluded his speech by announcing in the forum that his company- Lucapa is scheduled to commence its operations in June 2018. Adding that Lucapa cannot wait and waste these scarce opportunities found in the Mountain Kingdom of Lesotho. 

Finally, the 2017 Africa Down Under Conference was the 15^th annually held conference in Perth, Western Australia and is organised by Paydirt Media - Australian based company. This event is the second largest after the Cape Town`s biggest Mining Indaba where all the world’s Mining Companies, Investors, Government Mining Ministries and Promoters come together for networking sharing their respective sector`s experience and hooking up with new investors. 

The Department of Mines & Geology Hosts KPCS Forum

      By Rorisang David Mahlo

The Department of Mines and Geology held a two days peer review meeting with Botswana and South Africa under the subcommittee of the Working Group on the Monitoring (WGM) of the Kimberly Process Certification Scheme (KPCS). This event was scheduled from the 10^th -11^th of August 2017, in the Board Room of Letšeng Diamond Mine.

The objective of this event is directly related with the 2017 theme of the KPCS that says “Promotion of Africa Diamond Trade,” which is an initiative that happens for the first time in Lesotho.

On top of that, WGM forum is usually convened to revive and ensure compliance by all seventeen (17) active countries trading under KPCS terms and international conditions, Lesotho included.

Furthermore, WGM peer review forum is influenced by an ironic observation of most African diamond producing countries that, there is totally no intra-Africa Diamond trade within the Continent happening at the moment. That, as according to the Chair Person of WGM- Dr. Sipho Manese “sabotages the rate at which most African diamond producing countries would positively impact on the Gross Domestic Products (GDP) of their respective countries.”

Dr. Manese went on to show that “the ultimate goal envisaged by most KPCS African countries is to push hard to get to a point where Diamond subsector will liberate most African citizens from living below the poverty line.” Adding that the deliberations discussed in this forum must drive towards helping each individual country to execute this vision without any fear or favour.    

In addition the Commissioner of Mines Lesotho Mr. Tšeliso Ntabe indicated that “this event came at an opportune time when the Ministry is anticipating to put in place the plans for construction the Lesotho Diamond Centre- a coincidence indeed.” The Commissioner also reported that, this diamond trading facility is aimed at creating a greatest deal of buying and selling platform for the fellow country men and women at their locality.

Furthermore, the Commissioner of Mines could not help but prayed for the ease of soliciting a strong political buy-in to support this important endeavor for the benefit of the Lesotho and Basotho at large. If this could become a dream come true...”since currently Lesotho is one of the top ten (10) best diamond producing countries internationally, this means our economy is going to flourish even much higher than where it is right now.”

For the sake of making it much clearer, Mr. Ntabe continued to shows that this will attract more investors in the country; small and medium diamond dealers and diggers will also be able buy and sell here; the tourism will also boom as the influx of visitors behind diamond buying and selling business would be localised.   
  

Towards the end of the meeting, the whole WGM team was convened for the courtesy call by the Minister of Mining Honourable Keketso Sello. It is at this juncture where Hon. Minister warmly welcomed the committee in the Kingdom of Lesotho and again wished them deliberations that will bear fruitful results for the country. 

In his welcome speech Hon. Sello said that “I welcome the chair and co-chair of Working Group on Monitoring (WGM) of the Kimberly Process Certification Scheme to Kingdom of Lesotho” Adding that by mere looking at them, one could automatically tell from their faces that they were heartily welcomed, and are even enjoying the breezes of the Mother land country Lesotho.

Most importantly the Hon. Minister Sello acknowledged that, the WGM visit has come to the Kingdom of Lesotho when Lesotho has adopted its Minerals and Mining Policy based on the Africa Mining Vision.  Adding that, the policy provides a strategic direction and strategies for managing the exploitation of the country’s mineral resources said the Minister.

Besides that, the Hon. Minister highlighted that, the Government recognises the growing economic importance of the mining industry, driven by diamond mining. However, in order to fully achieve that, the Ministry is currently reviewing its entire legal framework- the Mines and Minerals Act of 2005 said the Minister.

He concluded by  strongly emphasising that, more and frequent intersections with our fellow African countries is very crucial and can ultimately put Lesotho on board to ensure that our national interests are realised and considered in the Kimberly Process. He therefore wished them a bonvoyage when they have satisfactorily completed their business in the country.