By ‘Majirata Latela
The Lesotho Cooperative College faces a bleak future after the ministry of small business, cooperatives and marketing which is the custodian of the college signed a memorandum of understanding with the ministry of gender, youth, sports and recreation which is likely to jeopardise the re-opening of the college.
The building has been a white elephant for almost five years now without clear plans on what is to become of it.
According to Lesotho’s hand book on the Lesotho Co-operative College has been offering certificate level studies and short term courses from its establishment since 1984.
However, over the years the co-operative business sector entered a new phase in its development and that brought challenges to the college to transform by introducing new courses to its clientele demands.
To overcome some of the challenges, Lesotho Co-op College introduced Diploma in Co-operative and Business Management Studies (DCBMS). The two-year full time training programme executed in four semesters which emphasized four basic areas of training namely; -Co-operative Development, Co-operative business management and leadership, accounting and auditing in self-employment
The cooperative has since been closed from January 2017 for refurbishment of the building and making policies as well as legal frameworks that will govern the college. It is a gift from development partners.
A close source to the paper has since shown that the former minister of small businesses, cooperatives and marketing, Thesele Maseribana during his time as the minister of gender and sports recreation was pushing to make the college a sports facility that will be used for sports teams to camp as it is close to Pitso Ground.
The source has further indicated that before Maseribana became the minister of small business, the ministry was already preparing for the college to re-open in August this year. But that will never be the case as the minister has agreed that the college be used by the ministry of gender for the upcoming Africa Union Sports Council (AUSC) Region 5 games scheduled for December 2021.
According to the ministry of small business the college is set to become the command centre for the games as the memorandum of understanding from both the minister of gender and minister of small business have signed in June 2021.
To date, the memorandum of understanding has not been publicised.
theReporter newspaper has made strides to get hold of the memorandum of understanding which is believed to hold information that may lead to the college not opening anytime soon.
Small business principal secretary, Advocate Bereng Makotoko told the publication in an interview that the college was set to re-open in August but it will never be the case as the ministry has already signed the memorandum to allow the ministry of small business to use the facility.
“Yes a memorandum of understanding has already been signed by the two parties thus making it impossible for the college to resume operating. I do not have a problem with sharing the memorandum and since we are still busy with offices relocation I am not in the position to know where the files are, please contact me next week.
“We still haven’t completed the relocation this week like I had anticipated. Please talk to the principal secretary at the ministry of gender,” Makotoko said to the publication after he had promised to share the memorandum.
Before going to print, the paper asked Makotoko on whether when the school was to open in August, the refurbishment would have been completed, he said it was anticipated that the renovation would have been completed by the ministry of works.
He also added that on the case of the legal frames, he could not respond to the question as he did not know where the paper got its information. He then ordered that the interview be halted.
On the one hand, the principal secretary of ministry of gender Dr Mamoeketsi Ntho denied sharing the memorandum which she confirmed that it was signed on account that there were some clauses which were still to be scrutinised.
But she confirmed that the memorandum allowed the ministry to use the building for the upcoming games.
On the other hand, Maseribane also confirmed that the ministry of gender has once had the plan to make the college a sporting facility as it was a proposal from Lesotho Sports and Recreational Centre but the plan never materialised.
“Before I took my new assignment, we had a long conversation with the cooperatives staff to find challenges that have been facing the college so that after refurbishment, it should operate on the basis of good legal frameworks and best cooperate governance.
“We had anticipated that the official opening should be somewhere in October,” Maseribane said.
Professor Setšabi said in his thesis when he was doing master’s degree he wrote about cooperative. The title of the thesis is transnational transportation of a social movement, the application of the antagonist movement in Lesotho,
Chairperson of the board of Cooperative Lesotho, Khomelwayo Mlotshwa told this publication that the closing of the college has hit hard on them as cooperative society because cooperatives are still lacking and now with the college closing it means there has not been an addition to the cooperative society from graduates at that college.
He however said they have realised that the government does not appreciate cooperative thus the reason they found it easy to close down the school and later not have clear plans on how they will open such cooperatives.
“We only wish the government could look at cooperatives as another model that can help boost the economy especially in a country where there is high unemployment rate. The government doesn’t find any worth in cooperatives as of now.
“The college was good because it produced co-operators, people who will create jobs, people who will create more cooperatives, it helped support the environment of cooperatives with the workshops that were held for co-operators to always keep themselves on top of their game,” Mlotshwa said.
