The Kao Community Issues Escalates to the Parliament

The Portfolio Committee on Natural Resources PCNR could not tolerate the lame excuses in their attempt to call upon the two neighboring mining companies – Kao and Liqhobong to account for their progress with regard to the implementation of their Corporate Social Responsibility Programmes on Friday the 4^th of May 2018. This came as a result of a blow outcry reported by some of the affected host communities around the mines.

Following a heated general meeting held on the 3^rd of May 2018 of all stakeholder Ministries before the committee, the mining companies` meeting was scheduled for the consecutive date which was the 4^th May 2018. It was then disappointingly reported that both Mining Companies seemed to have dishonoured the highest authority of this country due to their various excuses.

According to the Chair Person Hon. Mpalipali Molefe, Liqhobong Manager telephonically reported that they can only come on condition that there will be no media in their meeting; while Kao Manager sent a letter informing the committee that he was sick, “ what a disgrace by our Mining Companies, this is a wrong turn,” said Hon. Molefe with an angry voice.

Consequently, the Natural Resource portfolio committee got angry and decided to take some major steps of bringing them to order through the parliamentary directives, legitimately called summons dated the 14^th of May 2018.

Moreover, the committee with the representation of the Hon. Chair Molefe and his colleague, Hon. Tumaole Lerafa visited the affected host communities on Monday the 7^th, May 2018 to apprise them on the latest development on their grievances and to reassure the host communities that the Natural Resources Portfolio Committee has taken their case under their control to find the amicable solution to this matter.

As an avenue of trying the means to a better solution, the Natural Resource portfolio committee also formed a technical team of all stakeholder Ministries to advice the responsible Parliamentary Committee on how to go about the matter in hand, and to help identify where the Mining Companies might have lost track. The report of the technical team was submitted before the Parliamentary Committee last week before the visit to the host communities.

In a nutshell, the recommendations of the technical team were mostly on the issues concerning the Corporate Social Responsibility Programmes and environmental constraints which were also highlighted in the Mining companies’ respective Environmental Management Plans (EMPs).  Additionally, the technical team also identified and highlighted the unnecessary delaying of execution of mining social agreements between the two mining companies and their respective host communities as the source of the whole fiasco.

On the other side, the Principal Secretary – Mining, Mr. Soaile Mochaba also shared with portfolio committee an ironic background on how this disaster started to a point where it is today. He reported on all the grievances that were outlined by the Community committee liaison before all the stakeholders on the meeting that was held in February 2018 after the touchy incident of the loss of one community member and the two who were severely injured and hospitalised. He also reported on the commitments made after those events and the reported constraints encountered.

“The actual reason for this unhappy state at Kao Community was caused by the Kimberlite mud that was eroded by heavy rains to the nearby village called Sekeketeng during the February 2018 heavy rainfalls. About four households were affected by this disaster and that made the community to make a protest against the mine,” said Mr. Mochaba.

In explaining what the Ministry has done so far to mitigate the prevalent situation, Mr. Mochaba explained before the portfolio Committee that, the Ministry formed an Internal Team of government Officials –“Community Resolutions Team” to address the community grievances around mining areas. “The very same team also visited Kao Community Liaison Committee to intervene but due to a set time frame of three months, nothing much was achieved,” reported PS Mining.

Moreover, with regard to the issue of relocation of severely affected households, “right now the mine is still in the process of consulting the relevant stakeholders and departments that have a role to play in the resettlement modalities of the affected households such as the local council” Said Mr. Mochaba.

Reporting further, Mr. Mochaba indicated that on the issue of the affected fields and pastures, the compensation has started some time back but the community has demanded for normalisation that will cater for everyone who lost their croplands based on a newly proposed mode of compensation.

It is during the very same meeting where Mr. Holomo Molibeli –The Commissioner of Police informed the Portfolio Committee that, the Kao Protest investigations` case in which there was a regrettable loss of life, injuries to some community members, and damage of the public assets, has been completed and submitted before the relevant courts of laws. He specifically highlighted that “we are now waiting for the legal recourse by the courts to send the subpoena to those that were alleged to appear before the courts.

Last was the issue of unfair employment: In this regard Mr. Mochaba told the Portfolio committee that, the Ministry through the Resolution Team has agreed with Kao Mine that they must formulate a policy to guide how the Mine should address the employment matters to avoid biasness. Also, PS Mining assured the Portfolio Committee that in the interim, the Ministry has instructed Kao Mine to post all available vacant positions at Police Station based at Kao where Kao villagers will have access like everyone else.

He concluded by appealing before everyone that it is high time for the stakeholder Ministries to stand up and make sure that their specific sector standards are respected across the board. He also called upon them to unite and see to it that the mining companies in Lesotho abide by the terms and conditions given to them before they could mine. He finally reminded them about the importance of making follow ups and checks on each other as that could help every investor to adhere to what is ought to be done.