Mohloai Mpesi
MINISTER of Natural Resources, Mohlomi Moleko, is steaming ahead with his vision to build a strong hydrogen economy in Lesotho to help alleviate widespread poverty and unemployment. However, he is not happy with people who repeatedly question the government’s intentions without understanding its aims and plans to change the country by developing new innovative projects.
The Water and Hydrogen in a Digital Future and Expo Conference launched last year is one such innovative vehicle through which the Lesotho government hopes to mobilise stakeholders and investments to develop a multi-billion maloti hyro economy.
The Metsi ke Bophelo Advocacy Incorporated, spearheaded by South African entrepreneur Mashudu Ramano, convened this conference last year. It came under heavy criticism from people who dismissed it as an opportunity for foreigners to fleece the country. But Minister Moleko says such misconceptions are a result of severe misunderstandings of the Metsi ke Bophole (water is life) initiative.
A group called Tsabo Moshoemane hali jooe (a young boy’s inheritance is never squandered because he will demand it all when he comes of age,) as well as several lawmakers and critics had breathed down Messrs Moleko and Ramano’s necks over the Metsi ke Bophole conference, accusing them of trying to squander Lesotho’s water for the benefit of outsiders.
Minister Moleko sat down with the Lesotho Times’s political reporter, Mohloai Mpesi (LT) for an interview in which he urged all Basotho to realise and support strategies that are good for the country and avoid trying to politicise every initiative.
Excerpts:
LT: The contentious Metsi ke Bophelo Water and Hydrogen Conference was launched on the 12th of October 2023 at the Manthabiseng Convention Centre. Since the launch of the conference, have there been any new developments and strategies in terms of how Lesotho can use its water to venture into the hydrogen industry for economic development?
Moleko: We are holding weekly meetings as the Ministry of Water together with the promoters of Metsi ke Bophelo conference. We are discussing the way forward and what we should do to realise our vision. For example, we need to set up a stakeholders’ forum where every organisation working in the water will come and discuss issues surrounding water and strategies that can be used to make Lesotho the first digital hydro-nation in the world.
So, we must have those stakeholder forums that will be held quarterly. Key stakeholders include the water affairs department, Renoka, Lesotho Highlands Development Authority (LHDA) and other private and public organisations.
At the same time, we need to have countrywide public participation, consultations, and debates where we will talk about water in order to get people’s opinions in terms of what Lesotho can do with her water in order to benefit economically.
LT: Are you saying that you have not started, and you are only now trying to engage people to solicit their opinions to make them understand the Metsi ke Bophelo project?
Moleko: No, we have already started. We kicked this thing off as a conference (last year) to teach people about water, and how we can utilise it to benefit the country. This confence is an ongoing project.
We can’t say we have the most water in the region and then have other countries leading in business in the water sector. We must be the country in the forefront in terms of water utilisation globally.
People don’t realise that it’s a journey. It’s not an event. We are going to level the playing field for projects in the area of water. First, we have to find out how much water we have and what we can do with our water. You can drink it, bath with it, run businesses with it and sell it as bottled water, establish bigger projects of hydrogen power etc.
Maybe Moshoeshoe I International Airport can become a hydrogen filling station for aeroplanes. Maybe we can also create oxygen for hospitals after separating the hydrogen and oxygen.
After we’ve made relevant laws, private companies can come in, apply for licences and establish factories to produce hydrogen. Another one would be interested in making a big factory exporting bottled water to places across the globe such as Dubai and the like.
LT: In all this, what it the role of the government and that of Metsi ke Bophelo?
Moleko: That thing confused a lot of people. Many labelled it a government initiative and that Metsi ke Bophelo is stealing a government idea. That is wrong. It is a private initiative that has gained government support to enable us to come up with strategies to build a strong hydro economy.
South Africa and Namibia are way ahead of us with hydrogen. We have not started; we don’t understand that fact. Namibia is going to spend M4 billion to build its hydrogen facility while we are debating whether or not this should take off.
I engaged these people (Tsabo Moshemane hali joo,e) three times at the Transformation Resources Centre (TRC). You see there are people who do not want to understand but only want to destroy. It is insane.
We will continue being the only least developed country in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region if we proceed with such attitudes. eSwatini is way ahead of us …. Botswana is seven or eight times ahead of us because we (Basotho) always create and tolerate foolish squabbles.
Namibia has billions worth of green projects underway….. They are no longer discussing green jobs and job opportunities in that sector; they are already implementing. It (Namibia) is building Africa’s first green hydrogen power plant. They are building while we are still at the thinking stage.
We are still thinking and saying; ‘Hydrogen will kill people, it will explode’, as per Tsabo Moshemane hali jooe. I met them and I was like, what the hell are these people talking about? What could they have possibly smoked? We are trying to push the country forward and they don’t want that, they want us to remain poor like this. We are not here to squander the country’s water but to harness it for good things.
Why can’t we build an airport with a hydrogen plant where aeroplanes, instead of refilling elsewhere, they can refuel here because airplanes of the future are going to use hydrogen? We are always sleeping yet regard ourselves as the clever ones. Let’s wake up to realities and support good projects.
We are going to make sure that by 2030 every Mosotho has water, and that we become one of few countries that will meet Sustainable Development Goal six (SDG6). We changed the strategic plan of the LHDA because they cannot be taking water from Lesotho to provide to 19 million people elsewhere in South Africa’s Gauteng region without stepping up efforts to ensure that our own people have water. If we can’t do that (provide clean water to all Basotho) by 2030 then retlabe rele selehe (we’d be foolish).
We can’t have the capacity to build big dams like Katse and ‘Muela but fail to give Basotho water. So, in line with SDG6 ….. all Basotho should have access to water by 2030.
LT: I see, but back to the question, what role is the government going to play and what role is the Metsi ke Bophelo going to play? Who is funding the conference?
Moleko: We realised that when it comes to the conference, the ideal situation is that the company (Metsi ke Bophelo Advocacy Incorporated) should work on the conference and find its own budget, not the government’s budget as it did during the launch. The government will be there to only support it. It is a private initiative, and the government will be there to support it. To say it’s a government’s initiative yet it came as a private initiative does not make sense. It is a private initiative, and the government is only supporting it.
What we had to do was to sign an MOU which outlined how we would support them. The idea does not originate from the government.
The conference is going to be run by Metsi ke Bophelo while the government will run the hydrogen strategy that needs us to change the law. That aspect will be run 100 percent by the government along with the digital (and other) systems to realise the objectives of the conference.
LT: The Orange-Senqu River Commission (ORASECOM) treaty signed by Member States, directs that “The Parties shall, in utilizing the resources of the River System in their territories, take all appropriate measures to prevent the causing of significant harm to any other Party.” Was the Commission consulted prior to executing the project?
Moleko: As I said, we are going to establish the stakeholder’s forum. ORASECOM is one of the stakeholders. LHDA, Ministry of Agriculture etc are among the stakeholders. So in that forum, they (ORASECOM) will be part and parcel of the strategies to be devised. According to me, we didn’t even need ORASECOM to build the dams we have in the country. We can give that mandate to LHDA, but that’s the way things were structured.
ORASECOM includes Namibia, Botswana, Lesotho and South Africa whereas LHDA is only Lesotho and South Africa. We can use the LHDA to drive the economic development of this industry because their mandate is to sell water to South Africa, build hydro power stations, irrigation systems, portable water, fisheries, tourism et al.
If we change the laws, we will level the playing field for private businesses to realise and develop the opportunities in the sector and become a private sector led economy.
LT: Given that there are already existing water dams in the country, where are you going to harvest the water to utilize for the project?
Moleko: Dams are there to give South Africa and Lesotho water, like Katse and Mohale. When the legislation is prepared, they can be available to give other industries water. Within the industrial sites like Ha-Belo, there can be a company that decides to set up a hydrogen plant and apply for a license.
So, there is no illicit project of hydrogen, we’re only opening people’s eyes. We are levelling the playing field now so that anybody can come, but play within the law of course. For example, if a foreign investor comes in and wants to establish a hydrogen plant, the law will interrogate whether there is a necessity to include local participation. Should we allow them to erect their company without involving Lesotho National Development Corporation (LNDC) and at the end of the day they have invested M200 million but not a single Mosotho benefits? We have to protect the resources of Lesotho.
So, these projects will come later when the conference continues, and investors meet local people and have discussions and agree on a way forward. We have to make sure that legislation stops exploitation of Lesotho’s water. That’s where we are as government. We are dealing with bulk water and a Bulk Water Authority will be the custodian of water issues including water rights, issuance of permits; That whole thing needs a proper structure and legislation. Right now, anything can happen.
LT: The involvement of Ramano Mashudu as a key palyer, has some people believing he is only here to milk Lesotho’s money and run to South Africa. Was the vision influenced by Mr Mashudu?
Moleko: Yes, it was. A lot of Lesotho’s ideas come from white people but when they come from a black man, you have a problem. Why? It was his idea originally. It was an idea that was birthed through the discussion that we had along with Mr Tlhalefo Moloi.
So, people attack the Ramano of South Africa, while Moloi, who was also part of this discussion, is not attacked. The intention was to taint Ramano’s name. Ntate Ramano is building a plant in South Africa through his Mitochondria Energy Company.
I and Mr Moloi tried to convince him to bring it to Lesotho for Lesotho’s benefit because that facility is worth M4.3 billion. We were so passionate to lure him as an investor but he refused, stating that he is building a facility in his home country, and that he could therefore not abandon it after so much effort he invested in it.
He said he did not understand why we don’t use our water to benefit us when we have such a wealth of water. He said with this strategy we can double the economy five times. I believe him because investments that can come in and the energy that can be made is unimaginable. But he advised that we should not start by doing projects, but that we should first learn and that when we have acquired sufficient knowledge, we should then alter related legislations to make investment possible. Legislation should be such that when one wants to establish a hydrogen powered airport in Lesotho, there is provision in the law for such. We thought we will also need to have a Water Institute focused on water research, management of catchment areas and water sources. It must know everything about water.
We first have to capacitate people and educate them about water. We are trying to change the vision of the country, that our vision will be aligned to our number one resource in the country, water. We want to excel in everything about water.
