By Kabelo Mollo
This week began with the Kingdom celebrating 55 years of Independence. I wonder whether celebrating is the right word, perhaps observing would be better served in the context of where the country is. Through the ups and downs, the peaks and the troughs, for what it’s worth, we’re here. This is where we are supposed to be, and so best we quickly accept the reality so that we can plan ahead and move to where we need to be sooner than the next 55 years.
I had an awesome experience on Monday having initially attended the Brand Lesotho panel discussion virtually before deciding to drag my behind there. The panel made up of Nthakoana Ngatane, Thebe Ikalefeng, Mohale Ralebitso, Herbert Moyo and Reboneng Makoa was as enlightening as they were erudite. All of them eloquent and articulate I enjoyed the discourse tremendously and while some of the truths that were uttered were jarring, all of them needed to be said. My feeling is that more such fora are required if we’re going to grow and develop over the next little while.
There are a few sensational sound bites that have seemingly made headlines and captured the imagination of social media citizenry. I have no desire to further sensationalise those tidbits but I do want to ventilate some of the points that captured my attention. One being the idea that it’s all well and good complaining that the entities that fill our private sector are multinational but what are we as Basotho doing about it?
An example was made of the Republic of India who at some point faced the same problem, before a group of change agents took it upon themselves to change the status quo. They clubbed together capital so that they could purchase and take ownership of the companies they felt could be major economic drivers. Much has been made of the so called Basotho blanket and the fact that it isn’t owned by Basotho.
The poser now, is should Basotho find a way to take ownership of the company that produces them, or should they start their own blanket manufacturing companies?
If Basotho are going to start their own entities what of the pink elephant in the room which is access to finance. Seed capital in this country is virtually non existent let alone development finance once you’ve begged, borrowed and stole in order for you to launch your startup. An American varsity buddy of mine warned me that it was nobody’s job but my own to find, specifically seed capital. It was his view, nobody owed anybody the opportunity to build a business.
He used to tell me good businesses fund themselves. It was his favourite moniker, and I think in the context of where he came from that might have been the case, but I wonder whether same is true here. I digress though, because the point I was leading to was that in Mondays discussion the foundation for the “Mohlomi Fund” was laid after an interaction between one of the panelists and an entrepreneur who was in the audience. With any luck said fund will go towards filling the gap that exists in terms of access to funding for small to medium businesses in the Kingdom.
My own sense of some of the topics discussed is that the society we live in can use platforms like the one brought to us by the Citrus Mamoth Group as a launch pad to kick on and action some solutions. For as long as the conversations are being had, something can be done about it. As Mr Ikalefeng pointed out, it is only once something is measurable that it is actionable. I’m paraphrasing but that’s the gist.
Lots of sobering realities were dealt with at the round table discussion, some of them have relatively straightforward solutions, others not so much. Either way, as Basotho, which includes the large diaspora we have living beyond our borders the time has come.
It is time to well and truly lift our socks and get to work with a unity of purpose and execution to get this great kingdom back to its former glory. A massive shout out to Citrus Mammoth group, brand Africa and all the panelists from the discussion on Monday. Here’s hoping we left the chat with more than just inspiration, but with a fire in the belly that says “this far in to the abyss, and no further”.
