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Nov. 11, 2019

STAFF REPORTER

4 min read

Wool, mohair regulations repealed, but…

Wool, mohair regulations repealed, but…

Minister Chalane Phori

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MASERU – The government of Lesotho has lost the battle on the localisation of wool and mohair trade in the country, as parliament on Tuesday last week echoed in the affirmative for the repeal of the Wool and Mohair Regulations 2018 which prohibit direct sales of the produce outside Lesotho without processes being done locally.

The decision, which follows a recommendation by a parliamentary  ad hoc committee set up to investigate the wool and mohair trade before and after the introduction of the regulations, has supposedly given the farmers the freedom to sell their wool wherever they chose, but…

Government officials and legislators as well as experts in the wool and mohair trade say this decision by parliament could further pit the farmers into deepened woes to derive benefits from their produce - or that the repeal of the regulations could bring even a tougher law to secure the localisation processes.

Supporting the repeal, Hloahloeng MP Ntlhoi Motsamai, who was also a member of the ad hoc committee, told the House that the decision was good because the regulations had caused poverty and hunger to the people who were solely depending on wool and mohair trade for survival.

Ms Motsamai said the cancellation of the Regulations implied that the farmers would go and sell their product to any market of their choice, and that meant their lives would improve.

But the Minister of Small Businesses, Cooperatives and Marketing, Chalane Phori, said “the Regulations were good, it is just that the government and the banks failed to work together when it came to payment”.

Mr Phori blamed the banks for the money that he said had not reached the farmers.

He also accused the government of being soft in the implementation of the regulations saying it appeared as though it did not wish to help the farmers get what rightfully belonged to them.

Parliament agreed that for all people who did not get their money, the broker should be forced to give those people their money failing which the government would pay the money.

The committee found that about 250 000 farmers, which is a quarter of Basotho, used to benefit from the wool and mohair industry before the government issued the controversial regulations last year.

“This includes employment it has created in different farms, shearing sheds around the country and indirect beneficiaries through the proceeds that come from the sale of this precious commodity,” chairman of the ad hoc committee Kimetso Mathaba said.

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Mr Mathaba’s committee also found that farmers were not consulted prior to the enactment of the Agricultural Marketing Wool and Mohair Regulations, 2018.

He also told the House that certain brokers who were awarded licenses in reaction to the farmers’ outcry contravened the very regulations the government created.

“They do not have 9 000 square meters operating space and sampling equipment, auctions are held outside the country, brokers deduct more than four percent from farmers’ sale,”  Mr Mathaba said.

The committee found that the “regulations did not have transitional period to allow farmers to prepare themselves for the change.”

“The intention behind localising wool and mohair sale did not undertake any feasibility study and research for operationalisation of the regulations.

“The cost of selling one bale of the Lesotho clip locally is more expensive than when it is sold along with other clips internationally,” he said.

He added: “There is inconsistency and delays in paying farmers at the Lesotho Wool Centre which was not the case during BKB Limited and CMW Limited era, therefore this is an anomaly in itself, which has caused a lot of abject poverty, stress and frustration among the local producers of wool and mohair.”

The committee said “ever since the enactment of the regulations, Lesotho’s wool and mohair production is projected to have declined due to unavailability of dipping medicines”.

Earlier during the debate on the wool and mohair trade, on Monday, Home Affairs Deputy Minister Machesetsa Mofomobe had argued that Parliament was creating a vacuum by repealing the regulations when there was no other law in place.

His argument was supported by a number of MPs as well as the ministers of Agriculture and Food Security and that of Small Businesses Development that it would not be to the benefit of the farmers to repeal the law while there was no other law in place.

Supporting him was also leader of the Movement for Economic Change (MEC), Selibe Mochoboroane, who is also chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC). Mr Mochoboroane’s sentiments were also based on Basotho’s saying that a law cannot just be born without the foundations of an old one.

“We cannot allow lawlessness,” Minister Phori had also argued, saying in the absence of the new law, the old law would still apply unless it could be stipulated otherwise.

The government has recently issued new licenses to new players in the industry to compete with the Chinese led Thaba-Bosiu based Lesotho Wool Centre and so far only the Maluti Wool and Mohair Centre has auctioned with the rest of the other companies still silent.

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