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.