By ‘Majirata Latela
Two government ministries have related how former minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Temeki Tṧolo attempted to bulldoze them into signing the dubious and ill-fated Frazer Solar GmBH agreement and, when they refused to comply, he signed the deal himself.
Solar power company Frazer Solar GmbH was awarded a R855-million in damages by a South African court after the Lesotho government reportedly reneged on a contract, which was purportedly to be funded by the German government, as part of a wider programme to turn Lesotho into a net exporter of electricity.
A global enforcement action was filed in the District of Columbia in the US, paving way for the seizure of Lesotho’s assets around the world. These include royalties paid to Lesotho’s government by the Trans-Caledon Tunnel Authority as well as payments for power from Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. Lesotho’s share in the Mauritius-based West Indian Ocean Cable Co. was also reported to have been provisionally seized.
Under the agreement, signed on September 24 2018 between the mysterious company and Lesotho for the provision of up to 40 000 solar water heating systems, 20MW of solar photovoltaic capacity, one million LED lights and 350 000 solar lanterns nationwide.
The principal secretary of the ministry of energy and meteorology, Themba Sopeng, this week told the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) that in February 2021 when they were called to a meeting by the Government Secretary they learned that there was a court case in which Frazer Solar was suing the government of Lesotho and that there was a supply agreement letter between Lesotho and Solar Frazer which was signed by Tšolo on September 24 2018.
The ministry of energy read out a letter from Tšolo dated May 11 2018, with the heading, ‘100million euro German Efficiency Potential Project’ where he was seeking advice from the ministry, but also showing that pending a majority feedback on the project, his office and the ministry of finance would finalise the project parameters with the German government.
“Honourable Minister, as you may be aware, the government of Lesotho was approached regarding the German government-instigated initiative to improve energy efficiency and create employment in Lesotho through a large scale provision of energy efficient solar and lighting equipment. The project will be financed by a soft loan from the German government for 100million euros (M1.5billion) the project is premised on the fact that the loan repayments are more than covered by the electricity savings.
“The project promises to have a profound and positive impact on the entire country which we may seriously consider, most of you have already been exposed to the German government’s nominated supplier, Frazer Solar GMBH and its director Robert Frazer,
“The German Government has extended this offer to June 2018 in order for us to make a decision whether to take up this opportunity or decline, please find the attached business proposal from Frazer Solar GmBH for your ministry to review and advise on your comments and opinion whether to proceed or not by Thursday 24 May 2018,
“Please focus your deliberations on how this project will impact your own ministry, pending majority feedback in the affirmative, the office of the Prime Minister and minister and the ministry of finance will then finalise the project parameters with the German government and present the final proposal to cabinet in early June,
“You may wish to know that Mr Frazer is still in Maseru and would be available for any questions you may have through his email: robert.frazer@frazersolar.com. Or his contacts – 58557789,” the letter read.
Sopeng revealed that his ministry was invited to a presentation at Durham Link in December 2017 by the office of the minister in the Prime Minister’s Office, which was attended by several ministries, which include, ministry of public works, development planning, finance and that of energy, along with stakeholders like the Lesotho Electricity Company.
“The presentation was on installation of solar water heaters and LED lights in government buildings and government houses; the aim of the presentation was to sell the idea to all the stakeholders present. After the presentation our officials submitted a report to our minister, clearly showing that the proposed project was not worth the ministry’s consideration and support as it was too expensive and lacked crucial details.
“The other reason why our ministry would not support the project was that it was led by a ministry which had no jurisdiction on such projects, namely the minister in the prime minister’s office. The officials then advised the then minister Mokoto Hloaele not to accept the project, which he did. The ministry of energy only knows that much about Solar Frazer as it was not involved in any subsequent decisions made by the then minister in the prime minister’s office, until the above letter was sent to the minister Hloaele.
For his part, the principal secretary of the ministry of public works, Retšelisitsoe Mohale told the PAC that his ministry also attended the presentation simply because they would be involved if the project entailed installation of street lights on the roads and changing of the lights at government offices and houses.
“The report I received after the presentation was that the ministry was not receptive of the project because it believed that the proposed solar system was not going to work on the street lights as its illumination would not be sufficient for the roads.
“The other issue was that, even though the project looked good on paper, it was going to be too expensive and it would be hard to maintain and repair the lights. We decided we would not be part of the project. Since that day, we never heard anything from or about Frazer, until we heard about court judgement,” Mohale said.
The other information that was exposed at the PAC was that all subsequent correspondence from Frazer went directly to Tšolo, even after he was redeployed to the ministry of mining, something that raised questions as to what was happening.
According to the PAC testimonies, independent investigations have revealed that Frazer Solar GmBH has been inactive since 2019. Also, Mr Frazer was born in Australia, but only did some work in Germany. The company is not German either.
Other ministries that had been summoned before the PAC in connection with the Frazer saga but which did not show up are finance and development planning.
Attempts to get a comment from Tṧolo were futile as he could not be reached on his phone.
However, he has been widely quoted in local media in recent weeks, denying any involvement with Frazer Solar GmBH or having appended his signature to the deal.
Approached by this publication last week, the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Offences denied rumours that it had called in the Mafeteng Member of Parliament for questioning in relation to the matter.
In another development, the office of the Prime Minister yesterday confirmed plans to set up a commission of inquiry into the Frazer debacle.
However, one of the local lawyers said it does not make sense to set up a commission just to look into the Frazer matter, unless there are other issues that government wants to unearth, that are related to public procurement.
