By ‘Majirata Latela
The ministry of small business, cooperatives and marketing appears to be far from ending its now characteristic flip-flopping and rolling stone habits as it is set to end its tenancy at its present headquarters which it only occupied in February this year.
The ministry is now planning to abandon the posh Mpilo Botique Hotel which is has rented since February under a sub-lease agreement.
Before being moved to the hotel, it had just ‘abandoned’ the Fairways Building which it had also sub-leased for some considerable time.
In August this year the ministry will say bye-bye to the Mpilo Botique Hotel, ending its seven year- sub-leasing contract with Matekane Group of Companies (MGC).
It has emerged from a source within the ministry that a go-away sign was flagged to the ministry after it failed to honour its commitment to pay monthly rental fee.
According to this source which cannot be named for protection against reprisal, the ministry has also failed to pay for services offered by the company that couriered its equipment and furniture to the Mpilo Botique Hotel.
“It has also been said that the ministry will again after 10 months move to another building which is currently under construction at Maseru West,” the source has revealed.
On behalf of small business ministry principal secretary Advocate Bereng Makotoko confirmed the ministry will be moving from Mpilo in August but declined to divulge the reasons for the exit.
“The matter is still internal and we are still negotiating with the relevant parties on some issues so I cannot give any details until all parties have allowed me to talk to the media about them.
“Last time when the ministry was moving to Mpilo, even before the contract was signed there was too much controversy running around in the media and social media platforms that nearly jeopardized the negotiations so we don’t want to take that chance again.
“We will be in a position to talk to the media when everything is finalized, I do not care what information you may have now that I may have to respond to, but if a push comes to a shove I rather take my chances and put out the fires later,” Makotoko said.
He also did not want to respond to the question of whether they have paid a moving company to help them move their furniture and equipment to Mpilo.
After Mpilo Boutique Hotel released a statement in March that it was closing its doors, the ministry expressed plans to hire a larger building that would accommodate all its offices and staff.
The other reason that the ministry showed for moving to Mpilo was the absence of ventilation at Fairways Plaza reasoning that ventilation is highly required for health purposes at this time of the scourge of Covid-19.
The sub-lease signed by the ministry and the MGC and seen by this paper, suggested that M161 would be paid per a square metre, meaning that about M724 500 was to be paid on a monthly basis.
The document stated that the sub-lease agreement meant that the duration of the agreement would for seven years. It showed it would be renewed for a further period on similar terms and conditions as the two parties would agree.
It had been agreed that February 2021 would be a commencing date despite it being penned down by former principal secretary Tankiso Phapano.
Mpilo Boutique Hotel in itsr statement said the hotel closed due to the Covid-19 as it could not survive the challenges brought by it.
The ministry started operating on this building at the beginning of February 2021.
