By Teboho Serutla
The Import Car Dealers Association of Lesotho (ICDAL) has called on government to rather take action against car dealers who are involved in corrupt practices, than adopt a heavy handed approach to the entire business.
This after the ministry of trade and industry’s plans to put a temporary moratorium on the issuing of car dealership licenses were exposed.
After a leaked internal memo to this effect triggered a backlash this week, the ministry moved swiftly to do damage control by claiming it is close to completing investigations on more than five foreign dealers who were found to be operating with the same license.
Trade and industry minister, Thabiso Maile, said some of the owners of these businesses are based in their countries and only deploy unqualified and incompetent workers in Lesotho to run their businesses.
Molapo said they have had cases of multiple dealers using one license to trade, which leaves the legitimacy of their business in doubt.
“Most of these traders are in the country without work permits; they don’t even bank here and that leads us to conclude that their only intention is to boost the economies of their countries of origin while milking us dry. Most of them do not even partner with Basotho. We have reason to suspect there are underhand dealings in the importation of these vehicles since these foreign merchants don’t even bank here.
“They should use the valid and lawful mode of payment when selling their merchandise (which is digital payments) instead of cash payments, to avoid creating problems for the tax collector,” the minister further charged.
Responding to these claims the director of Star Motors, who is also a member of ICDAL, Fozan Rasheed, said people who are involved in corrupt practices should be dealt with immediately.
“In other small businesses which are not run by foreigners, don’t they have the same concern as well? We believe if there’s any concern from their side regarding these issues, they should do their investigations while at the same time allowing us to continue with our work by issuing us the import permits,” Rasheed retorted.
He added that the ministry is at liberty to take whatever action it deem necessary if the allegations turn out to be true after investigations, rather than having to hang the entire business on the line. He reiterated that the association has always cooperated when it comes to these kind of issues, and has always stood for what is right
“The Covid-19 pandemic has hard hit on our business. Now we have to face a challenge like this when we haven’t even recovered from the pandemic crisis. We are willing to cooperate with the ministry for investigations but having to close down import permits is not the solution. All car dealers will comply with whatsoever investigations they want to do. But it should be done with our businesses running,” he added.
The ministry alluded to temporarily suspending the issuance of trading licenses linked to this business, as well as restricting importation of vehicles from supplier countries. This suspension is meant to buy the ministry enough time to complete its investigations without any distraction along the way.
The ministry also said it hopes to have completed the investigations by next week and once it is done it will revoke this suspension.
“These temporary sanctions or restrictions do not involve Basotho who import cars individually or in groups.
“Our main objective is to make sure that ultimately Basotho are able to do this business at ease as well. After achieving this we must clear the path so that Basotho won’t be taken advantage of,” the ministry concluded.
