By ‘Majirata Latela
There is a mounting outcry that foreign-owned drilling and blasting companies exploit Basotho workforce when projects such as construction of roads, big buildings and dams are implemented.
The stinging claim emerged during this week’s press conference hosted by the managing director of Mookoli Holdings Thapelo Tsa Rasebonang, a Mosotho businessman owning a drilling and blasting company.
Rasebonang breather fire as told the media that the industry faces a web of exploitation challenges by foreign companies to the Basotho workforce.
Drilling and blasting is the controlled use of explosives and other methods such as gas pressure blasting pyrotechnics, to break rock for excavation. It is practiced most often in mining, quarrying and civil engineering activities such as dam, tunnel or road construction. The result of rock blasting is often known as a rock cut.
The troubled Rasebonang lamented that preference in awarding drilling and blasting works was given to the foreign owned companies, marginalising locals in the implementation of big projects. This, he argued, is driving Basotho-owned drilling and blasting companies to collapse.
This is due to the awarding of lucrative contracts to foreign owned drilling and blasting companies, he argued.
Irked by the state of affairs, he pleaded for intervention from the mining industry’s inspectorate on explosives to resolve the matter; this is contained in a letter dated May 5 2022 to the inspector of mines.
“My current drilling and blasting engagement at Polihali project has exposed me to a number of challenges that I think need your urgent intervention. I have also as an individual tried to tackle these challenges, but have since realised that your intervention could play more of a meaningful and decisive role and easily speed up the process.
“Your intervention can address a wider scope of these challenges. The current challenges that Basotho-owned drilling and blasting companies in this country face on a daily basis clearly indicate that the local companies in this lucrative industry are being exploited by foreign companies,” the letter read.
He said drilling and blasting was first carried out by government but 10 years ago private companies were given permits to carry out such works. He suggested that as a result Basotho companies thrived, only to be threatened with extinction after some years of operations.
Rasebonang was evidently pained that the ministry of mining – which oversees mining and quarrying activities in the country – was made that native companies collapsed due to the mentioned challenges, but none of them were addressed.
He claimed that both big and small drilling and blasting works were being awarded to foreign companies, especially Chinese-owned companies, which already have a monopoly of big project tenders.
He said as Basotho-owned companies, they requested the ministry of mining to enforce the policy of mining and drilling which he said has been gathering dust. He said the policy shows that Basotho companies will be given preference in drilling and blasting activities but this has become a pipe dream.
For instance, he said at the site of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project Phase II for Polihali dam construction in Mokhotlong, his company was contracted to perform drilling and blasting but was forced to enter into a joint venture with some South African companies, resulting in his company losing out on 80 percent of income.
“I was forced into fronting, which I totally objected to. I even had to abandon my job for two months. Luckily, the ministry of water which is responsible for the project, intervened and I completed the job alone.
“Fronting is currently what our companies are forced into doing, even now with the Marakabei- Monontša and Ha Mpiti-Sehlabathebe roads constructions, Basotho companies are not doing well because the Chinese are doing the drilling and blasting themselves,” he said.
In addition, he suggested categorisation of works to be performed, as this would resuscitate Basotho’s companies and enhance their competitiveness.
Rasebonang further suggested that the cost of works to be done be reviewed to avert any possible cheating of Basotho-owned companies when standard cost rates are not in place; such rates, he said, should be reviewed annually.
He went on call for formulation of guidelines that govern the partnering and establishment of joint ventures with the foreign companies to avoid local companies getting short-changed.
He further urged the department of mining to work on the issue of monitoring, as lack of resources on its part hampers efforts to conduct monitoring exercises. He said good monitoring is a requirement because they work with very dangerous equipment which, if not monitored, may endanger people’s lives.
In conclusion, he appealed to the inspectorate to review the current contracts in all major projects currently underway in the country.
Commenting on the matter, the commissioner of mines, Pheello Tjaatja, said explosives are supposed to be used strictly in a controlled manner, and that those who use them work hand in hand with the inspector of explosives from and the commissioner of police.
“As the commissioner of mines I am only an appeal body, that is to say I can only intervene in the kind of issues that have been raised if a certain company or the industry has already sat down and communicated with the responsible parties and is now complaining of not getting assistance.
“The issues that these people are complaining about are very difficult because drilling and blasting only comes in when someone has been awarded a tender for a certain project and then requires the services of drilling and blasting company. The project manager is at liberty to choose whoever they want to do business with.
“The major problem that I have realised is that these people allow foreign companies to use them as fronting. They do not form joint ventures or partnerships as Basotho companies but wait to be used by foreign companies. Now, when they see that the issue of fronting does not work for them, they start complaining about the mess created by themselves,” Tjaatja said.
He also added that in the case of construction works at Polihali, his office was able to intervene when Mookoli Holdings was complaining and ensured that preference was given to locally-owned companies to carry out such operations in drilling and blasting. At one stage, he added, the department confiscated some explosives as a measure to resolve the impasse.
“We do not have a localisation law in drilling and blasting except in the mines where regulations are very clear. In drilling and blasting, project managers or engineers are free to choose who they want to work with.
“These people allowed themselves to be exploited by the foreign companies for quite a long time. It is now difficult for them to even negotiate better deals or arrange for better ones. However, they know they can always come to us to seek assistance in negotiating for good agreements like we always do when asked to do so,” Tjaatja said.
