By Staff Reporter
At the entrance to the Maseru District Agricultural Office (DAO) stands a sign board with the words ‘Ministry of Agriculture and Food – Maseru District Agricultural Office’ in both English and vernacular.
This attractive office building constructed with high quality bricks, is situated at Masianokeng along the Main South I Road just next to the Phuthiatsana River, 20km south of the city of Maseru.
Just before the main entrance to the building, is a national flag flying high, signifying the building is a government property.
On the outside building’s wall at the main entrance towards the reception area is a plaque which reads: “This building was officially inaugurated by the honourable minister of agriculture and food security Dr Rakoro Daniel Phororo on 3rd February 2006 and sponsored with the generous support of the Agricultural Policy and Capacity Building Programme.”
On the wall of the reception area is a World Food Programme (WFP) poster commemorative of the World Food Day of 10 October 2022. On the bottom, it boasts …. “a better environment and a better life.”
But that is where the beauty ends.
The reception area is in poor conditions and the ceiling has totally collapsed exposing fibre glass and rafters. The bulb holders are hanging untidily and electrical wires are visible, suggesting that lighting in the area is not possible.
As further testimony that the building is now far from being habitable for use as offices, there are cracks that stretch considerably long. They are also visible in the office of the secretary of the district agricultural officer while others are also a clear sight in the office of the district extension officer.
Not only that, there is another crack in the office of the DAO’s secretary visible between the door frame and the wall leading into the office of the DAO.
The building houses the following offices: district animal production, district nutrition, home economic office, accounts, projects field, registry, transport and crops. Other offices, the tabloid has learned, are shared by some officers.
Some of the officers have long been fearing for their lives due to the unsuitable condition of the building, constantly worrying it was on the brink of collapse.
“The cracks in these building, are a sign that we are not satisfactorily safe here. These cracks on the walls are evidence that something is wrong with the building. Surprisingly, it is not such an old building as it was constructed in the early 2000s,” one agricultural officer who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal and who once occupied an office there, told this publication before he was transferred.
His sentiments were echoed by another officer who added: “I am lucky that I have been moved from that office. I do not know when it will eventually cave in or when the walls will collapse. Something needs to be done urgently to avert any disaster.”
The two officers declined to be named, with one of them warning: “That exposed fibre glass could be harmful to the human skin if you come into contact with it. You know it is actually capable of killing rodents.”
This publication has been reliably informed that the building was once inspected for safety and “declared inhabitable” due to its suspected shoddy workmanship by the unidentified contractors.
It has also established that water supply, sanitation and electricity supply also leave a lot to be desired, making life difficult for the officers working there. That situation is in contrast to the World Food Day 2022 poster themed “better environment, better life.”
The ventilated pit-latrines built outside, for both males and females, are also in a poor state. The doors are dilapidated and rats’ waste is seen on seats and the floor. The offices’ guard room which accommodates security guards, is a worrying sight and far from being suitable to shelter the guards.
During a visit there on February 13, the district agricultural officer ‘Maphakamile Xingwana, who was said to be away last week, vehemently declined to comment about the matter, saying she was due to hold a staff meeting.
She then referred the scribe to the office of the ministry of agriculture and food security’s principal secretary Mole Kumalo who she said was an authority to be grilled about the issue.
Kumalo was said to be attending an undisclosed meeting at the office of the government secretary. The publication was referred to the ministry’s director of field services Thabo Sekhonyana who was out of office on a work trip to Mokhotlong.
At the time, the deputy principal secretary and the ministry’s minister Thabo Mofosi were said to be in Rome, Italy, attending an agriculture-related conference.
As the publication was moved from post to pillar, it was further referred to the ministry’s administration office. Its officer, Chere Mokhahlane, declined to comment, requesting the writer to contact Kumalo, claiming “I do not have permission (to comment).”
The publication was subsequently referred to the ministry’s chief information officer Lereko Masupha.
On February 15, Masupha said the agriculture ministry is one of the oldest government ministries in the country dating as far back as the 1950’s and has offices in all the districts.
He said many buildings that belong to the ministry were built many years ago in partnership with some foreign donors and partners. He added that such buildings were part of implementation of agricultural projects supported by both donors and the government of Lesotho “in order to extend agricultural services.”
He said many of these buildings, including the agriculture ministry’s headquarters in Maseru and its department of information building, are old and need rehabilitation; the same applies to buildings that serve as residences of agricultural officers.
He confirmed that the building housing the DAO offices at Masianokeng were inspected and obviously declared inhabitable, blaming poor workmanship. He further disclosed that there are plans to rebuild the Maseru DAO.
He said the agriculture ministry submits requests for financial support from the ministry of development planning and finance on its recurrent budget.
“The request is taken to development planning to see how much money is available based on prioritization plans… There was a plan to build a tripartite building to house forestry, agriculture ministry and food security and small businesses offices. This was at an advance stage but was dropped due to political instability,” he recalled.
In another development, we have been reliably informed that the district office has written a request letter for financial support to rebuild its Maseru office headquarters.
