SOME three months ago, ’Mapheello Rapita, a 53-year-old widow was surprised to see trucks off-loading stones for crushing in her vast field.
When she went to enquire what was happening, she found that the truck belonged to Qingjing Groups (CNQC), a Chinese-owned company building the M91 million Mpiti to Sehlaba-Thebe Road in Qacha’s Nek.
The company had not bothered to ask for permission to off-load the material on her land.

Rapita says as much as she appreciates the necessity of building the road in her area and the vast benefits they would enjoy as a community, the least the company could have done was to seek her permission to use her land.

What has complicated matters for her is the fact that the cement works have now ruined her land, making it extremely impossible to continue growing crops on the damaged land.

This was the only land she had to grow crops for her family

“I have not signed any contract with them to allow them to use my field neither did I have any talks with them about it,” Rapita says.

“I only saw that they have used it for crushing stones and I have noticed as well that the field will never be a field again.”

Rapita, who says her husband died last year, says she was hoping the project would “wipe her tears” by giving her some form of monetary compensation for ruining her field.

“My husband died leaving me with four children whom I have to raise alone,” she says.

“The field was so helpful for me and my children but now I have nowhere to plant yet there is nothing in return for me and the children I am left with.”

It is not just Rapita who is bitter over CNQC’s behaviour in villages that have been affected by the construction of the Mpiti to Sehlaba-Thebe Road.

Rapita and several other people from Ha-Mphahama are complaining that CNQC had promised to compensate them for the loss or damage of their land as a direct result of the new road.

The village chief of Ha-Mphahama, Chief Mathealira Mpiti, told thepost this week that the project management had promised to build small gravel roads to connect villages as they pass. That too has not been done, Chief Mpiti says.

The villagers would in return allow the Chinese-owned company to mine quarry, sand and other natural resources close to the villages as the construction of the road continued.

The chief says it had also been agreed that the construction company would give temporary jobs to residents of villages where it passes by.

“After some months without any promises being fulfilled they came back and told us that they were behind time with their project,” Chief Mpiti says.

“They said to go back to Ha-Mphahama to fulfil their promises would delay their project further since they had already passed the village,” he says.

“They asked the community to bear with them and allow them to pay M20 000 per village as compensation.”

Chief Mpiti says this is a mockery of his people.

The money was supposed to have been paid on August 12.

“We have not yet received any money from CNQC, we are still waiting,” he says.

He says the village committee is yet to meet to discuss the way forward. They want this done quickly before the company completes its work.

Tšepiso Sejojo, a councillor for Ha-Mphahama, says from the start “they have not done what they said they would do”.

“Promises of access roads around the village have not been fulfilled,” Sejojo says.

“And now even the issue of money we are no longer sure the promises will be fulfilled,” he says.

But Sejojo says they still have hope that the company will fulfil its promises in the end.

He says two other villagers also had their fields used by the company. They too have still not been paid.

Sejojo says they are thinking of blocking the company from mining natural resources such as quarry and sand until they fulfil their promises.

But that “punishment” might be too late because the construction work is about to be completed and the company will leave the area.

Pule Liau, 39, says the company parked its containers on his fields for three months under a promise that they would pay him M2 000 for each month.

He says to his shock, he was paid only M2 000 at the end of the three months period with the company insisting the payment was for the three months.

Liau says he signed a contract stipulating that his field would be used for three consecutive months, during or after which he would be paid M2 000 for each month.

“We had to sit down again and talk but even today they have not come back to pay me the balance,” he says.

“I think they are taking advantage of me because I am poor.”

Liau says he is dependent on his fields to look after his family. He has three children who are still going to school. His wife is unemployed.

He says he generates income for his family by selling beans every winter after harvest.

“I have always been able to take my children to school through the sale of beans,” he says.

“I feel betrayed and cheated.”

Contacted for comment, Mosehle Motosi, the coordinator between the company and the community, had promised to respond to the accusations from the villagers but had not done so at the time of going to print last night.

Motosi mediates between the locals and the Chinese because most cannot speak Sesotho or English.

The dispute between the villagers and the Chinese-run company did not start now. Last year, former Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili had to intervene to ensure that communities in his Tsoelike constituencies were paid.

The CNQC then started compensating the people for their fields that had been taken to pave way for the construction of the Mpiti to Sehlaba-Thebe Road, after over a year of a bitter row with owners.

Mosisili told thepost then that there was no fight between the people and the company.

“It’s just that the people are inpatient but truly speaking the company is paying,” he said, then.

The people, together with their local government councillor Lephallo Phooko, had asked Mosisili to intervene to help resolve their dispute with CNQC over the issue of compensation.

Mosisili had been the Tsoelike MP since 1993 when Lesotho reintroduced democracy.

The Mpiti to Sehlaba-Thebe Road has been his flagship project that was meant to improve the standard of living of his community.

It was one of the biggest projects he initiated in his final years as Prime Minister and leader of the Democratic Congress (DC) party.

The company had entered into an agreement with the Tsoelike community to compensate field owners who would lose their land to the project.

But some field owners in Tsoelike said they had still not been paid, six years after the project began.

At the time the angry communities were staging protests to stop the company’s day-to-day business. They blocked the road during the protests.

Sometimes they would sing outside the company’s offices and some threw stones on the road.

The villagers stopped the protests after they were promised that they would be paid before the end of June last year, after Mosisili’s intervention.

The project is being bankrolled by Export-Import (EXIM) Bank of China which provided a concessional loan of M1.3 billion while Lesotho injected an additional M500 million to bring its total cost to M1.8 billion.

The road is a collaboration between Lesotho and China, facilitated through the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC).

Thooe Ramolibeli

Muckraker spent weeks looking forward to Zodwa Wabantu’s show at Elibo Guest House. And it’s not because Zodwa has any thrilling talent.
She is a lousy dancer. A one-trick pony. There is not much to her act apart from deliberately forgetting to wear underwear and teasing drooling perverts. Muckraker was itching to attend the show just to enjoy watching depraves losing their minds over things they see every day.

But just as she was about to raise the last cent of the entrance fee the organisers announced that Zodwa (Aka Miss Pantyless) had been cancelled.

The reason for cancelling Miss Pantyless was that some church leaders were angry and disapproved of the show. Some were threatening ‘fire!’ on the lodge.
It is the hypocrisy of the church leaders that gets Muckraker’s goat.

Zodwa wasn’t coming to their churches or houses. Nor were their congregants invited to her show. They were not asked to contribute a cent to Zodwa’s fees. In short, the show was none of their business. They are not headmasters of morality. Nor are they paragons of virtue.

Zodwa should be last on the list of their worries. Instead, they should be first on the list of their worries.

A pantyless dancer is way better than a pastor who chows tithes and contributions. She is way more tolerable than false prophets with whom some of the church leaders share a faith, villages, streets and congregants.

These are church leaders who pray for politicians who continue to steal from the people. Their churches are full of murderers, thieves and rapists but they want to decide what a bar does in its premises and what pleasures people.

Might it also be remembered that some of the tithes, contributions and offerings churches receive are proceeds of crime. Churches don’t ask congregants how they earn their money because they know not all jobs and businesses are clean. None have Know-Your-Customer (KYC) forms.

When it comes to how you earn the offerings and tithes it’s between you and the Lord. Yet when it comes to you enjoying some Pantyless Zodwa they say it’s between you and them. Ba kena kae moo?

But all this is beside the point.

The real issue most church leaders deliberately refuse to acknowledge is that panties are overrated. Many of those dancing to hymns during their Sunday services are not wearing panties anyway.

That is common knowledge known to even rats in their churches.

If the church leaders argue that those dancing pantyless congregants were wearing panties, Muckraker will ask them three questions: how do they know, who did they ask and under what circumstances?

Whether it’s 6 or 9 depends on where you are standing.

Muckraker will not bother talking about the pitfalls of judging others because that is all too obvious and probably now a cliché of sorts.

All she can say for now is that if dancing without panties in church, bars or streets is a sin then many will not see heaven.

If panties were so important churches would be donating them like food and clothes. The moral of the story is that being Zodwa is not a sin.

And if you believe Muckraker was wearing panties when she wrote this column you are probably on a highway to being a false prophet. Fire!

Nka! Ichuuuuuuuuuuuu

muckracker.post@gmail.com

Christ the King High School (CK) were crowned champions of the 2023 Alliance High Schools Tournament on Saturday at Setsoto Stadium.
CK beat Mohatlane High School 2-1 in the final, thanks to goals from ‘Mapoho Skhosana and a dramatic last-minute penalty by Kopano Mootisa.

The dramatic climax gave Makhaola Serake’s charges their first Alliance High Schools Tournament trophy and the honour of becoming the second school after St Rose to win Lesotho’s most prestigious high school championship.

CK and St Rose will now face off in a curtain raiser for the high-profile Alliance Winter Challenge which is usually played in August ahead of the new league season.
It will be a dream day for the players who will kick off the annual preseason tournament contested by the four Vodacom Premier League clubs sponsored by Alliance Insurance being Matlama, Lioli, Linare and Lesotho Correctional Service (LCS).

Before then, CK can enjoy their fine success which they enjoyed under the mentorship of Matlama which was another exciting innovation of the Alliance High Schools Tournament.

As part of the mentoring, Matlama coach Halemakale Mahlaha sat behind CK’s bench observing the action, which undoubtedly inspired the players.
CK head coach Serake said his side’s two weeks of preparation for the competition also helped.

He said their team was made up of students from different schools including Mazenod, Cenez, Thabeng, as well as Tšepo high schools.

“We prepared well for two weeks,” Serake said.

“Lucky enough our players stay close-by, even the ones from other schools such as Cenez, Tšepo, Thabeng, Mazenod, we requested from their teachers and parents for them to come for training. It wasn’t difficult, they were allowed to come,” he said.

Serake said his talented CK squad had a simple formula for success.

“Hold on to the ball and run with it until you get into their box, that’s what we told them to do,” he said.

“A lot of the time they had the ball and took it wide, so going wide and then getting back in front of goals is not easy,” he continued.

CK reached the final by beating Sacred Heart 1-0 in the second semi-final to set up a tie with Mohatlane who had eliminated ‘Masentle earlier in the day. The final was reduced to 60 minutes to avoid fatigue but it did little help as players were still dropping like flies with muscle injuries.

In fact, the final five minutes of the finale were spotted with stoppages to give players medical attention they needed.

In his post-match interview, Serake acknowledged fatigue was a big problem for his players but praised them for pushing through to finish the game and win the grand prize.

Individual awards:

Player of the Tournament – Lebohang Mokone Mohatlane HS (Voucher M1 000)
Goalkeeper of the Tournament – Khotso Sehlabo CK HS (Voucher M1 000)

Prize monies
1st place CK – gold medals, trophy and M7 500
2nd place Mohatlane – silver medals and M5 000
3rd place Sacred Heart – M3 000
4th place ‘Masentle – M1 000

Tlalane Phahla