. . . prepares to host regional roads fund bodies
Moroke Sekoboto
THE Road Fund is celebrating three decades of turning road user charges into safer, better, and more sustainable roads across Lesotho. This was revealed by the Fund’s Chief Executive Officer, ‘Matšepang Sekhokoane, during the official launch of the 30th anniversary celebrations held yesterday.
Ms Sekhokoane said since its establishment, the Fund has focused on collecting revenue and disbursing it towards road maintenance, rehabilitation, construction of bridges, and road safety programmes.
Ahead of the main ceremony scheduled for 13 October 2025, the Fund will carry out several community-centred initiatives.
These include handing over a two-roomed house to a child-headed household in Mafeteng, donating a mobile court to the National University of Lesotho (NUL)’s Faculty of Law, and hosting a workshop on “Private Sector in Infrastructure Funding and Development.”
Dubbed “Thirty Years of Excellence: From Funding Roads to Fostering Road User Safety and Economic Growth,” the celebration will conclude with a gala dinner.
It will also be followed by the hosting of the African Roads Maintenance Funds Association (ARMFA) Southern Africa Focal Group (ASAFAG) meeting on 14 October 2025.
“These funds are invested back into road maintenance, rehabilitation and safety initiatives, making travel safer, smoother, and reliable for all Basotho,” Ms Sekhokoane said.
“The reason for establishing the Fund was to shift the burden of financing maintenance of Lesotho’s road infrastructure from general taxes collected by the central government to road user fees, and to close the persistent financing gaps that characterised road maintenance before the establishment of the Fund.”
She explained that to afford financing road infrastructure projects, the Fund collects revenue from toll gate fees, cross-border levies managed by the Revenue Services Lesotho (RSL), as well as registration, licensing and clearance fees for motor vehicles. Additional income comes from short-term and special permits issued by the Department of Traffic and Transport.
“We also collect revenue from the road maintenance levy on petrol and diesel paid by oil companies, fines on overloaded goods vehicles, and traffic offence fines collected by the Lesotho Mounted Police Service (LMPS).
“Other sources include interest earned on deposits, cost-sharing payments made by community councils for urban and rural road projects, donor contributions, and any other road user charges appropriated to the Fund,” she said.
Ms Sekhokoane also highlighted the Road Fund finances key implementing agencies, including the Roads Directorate, Maseru City Council, the Ministry of Local Government, and Road Safety. These agencies are tasked with carrying out routine, emergency, and periodic road maintenance across the country.
“The Road Fund finances road rehabilitation, road upgrading, new works, and road safety projects, in addition to its administrative costs.”
According to Ms Sekhokoane, the Fund’s revenue collection has grown significantly since its inception.
“We used to collect M23 million annually at the beginning of the Fund. The collection increased gradually to over M300 million annually. The budget for implementing agencies increased from M20 million to over M300 million.”
As part of the anniversary, Lesotho will also host ARMFA’s Southern Africa Focal Group (ASAFG). “
The purpose of the meeting is to exchange knowledge with peer organisations in other countries, as well as to benchmark our processes amongst the best on the continent. We will be hosting eight ASAFG countries, namely, Angola, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe,” Ms Sekhokoane said.
