Pascalinah Kabi
FRAZER Solar has accused Prime Minister Moeketsi Majoro of fraudulently submitting an affidavit to the Lesotho High Court in his quest to overturn a South African arbitrator’s award of £50 million (M856 million) damages to the German company.
The damages are for the government’s alleged breach of a 2018 contract the German company claims to have entered into with the previous Thomas Thabane-led coalition for the supply of solar power for four years.
Earlier this year, Frazer Solar successfully petitioned the Gauteng High Court to endorse the award. However, Dr Majoro is challenging the endorsement of the award in the same court and in Lesotho’s High Court.
The premier was finance minister at the time of the deal. He had refused to sign the financing agreement for the implementation of the project.
However, Frazer Solar insists it had a valid agreement that was signed on behalf of the Lesotho government by then Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office, Temeki Tšolo.
In the latest exchange of blows this week, Frazer Solar has alleged that Dr Majoro’s September 2021 application in the Lesotho High Court is premised on falsehoods bordering on criminality. The company alleges that the premier misled the Lesotho High Court by claiming that he deposed his affidavit, which summarises his case against Frazer Solar, before a commissioner of oaths in Maseru on 20 September 2021 before submitting it to the court.
The company claims Dr Majoro was not in the country on the day in question and therefore could not have deposed the affidavit as he claims.
“In September 2021, the Government of Lesotho (GOL) submitted a petition to the High Court of Lesotho requesting that the court nullify a Supply Agreement signed between Frazer Solar GmbH (‘FSG’) and the GOL. The supply agreement in question was signed between the GOL and FSG, and was breached by the GOL in 2019. The dispute was referred to an independent arbitrator, and FSG was awarded £50million (M856 million) in damages in 2020.
“In the months since, the award has been enforced against a number of Lesotho’s overseas assets. The GOL’s submission to the High Court of Lesotho included an affidavit signed by Dr Moeketsi Majoro, Prime Minister of Lesotho. Dr Majoro purportedly undertook his deposition in Maseru in the presence of a Commissioner of Oaths, on 20 September 2021. However, according to an official press release issued by the Government of Lesotho, Dr Majoro left the Kingdom of Lesotho on 19 September 2021 to attend the United Nations General Assembly in New York, USA. It is therefore impossible for Dr Majoro to have deposed the affidavit as claimed,” Frazer Solar said in its statement this week.
Therefore, Dr Majoro committed perjury, the company contends.
“FSG’s lawyers contend that Dr Majoro’s conduct is perjurious and it is a clear criminal offence which can lead to imprisonment.
“A pattern is emerging in Dr Majoro’s attitude to these legal proceedings. He appears to think himself, his government, and his decisions to be above the law. “Having first ignored legal proceedings for more than two years, he has now perjured himself in formal legal paperwork by a total disregard for truth and for due process. The unifying theme here is contempt not only for these proceedings, not only for the judiciary itself, but for the people whose interests he has been elected to represent,” Frazer Solar states.
Contacted for comment yesterday, Dr Majoro’s press attaché, Buta Moseme, said the premier and his lawyers had denied Frazer Solar’s allegations.
