When we entrust our money to banks, we automatically enter into contracts of mutuum with them. This means we automatically entrust them to look after our money in the best ways possible. We have no control over what the banks do with our money once we have wired it to them or left it with their tellers. They have the freedom to lend it to whoever they want.
The understanding, if not the rule, always is that banks stand in a fiduciary relationship with us as depositors. They must manage our deposits in the utmost good faith. They must avoid reckless lending.
They must only loan to people/institutions who are able to pay back. Banks must always remain liquid and enable depositors to withdraw their money on demand. The bank cannot tell you that: “Ah, we loaned your money to Scrutator and she hasn’t paid back. Scrutator is delinquent and we are looking for her. We will only allow you to withdraw your money once we find Scrutator and she has paid us back….”
If that was how banks worked, no one would ever leave their money in the banks. We would all use our sofas (Cyril Ramaphosa style) and mattresses for banking as they do in God forsaken Republic of Zimbabwe. Because things have gotten so bad in Zim that they no longer use their own currency but US dollars, you leave your dollars (if you are Zimbabwean) in a bank account at your own peril. After depositing, there is no guarantee you will get your dollars back on demand. The central bank of Zim cannot print US dollars. It cannot run an independent monetary policy. So when dollars are banked and the ruling regime takes them to subsidize its virescent, flourishing corruption, depositors are left in the lurch. What a mess? Thank God we are not Zim. At least just yet.
Banks are the lifeblood of a functional economy. Without a viable banking sector, no economy can function optimally. Which explains why whenever a major bank collapses, the ripple effects are felt across the concerned country’s entire economy. And if it’s a major economy involved, the ripple effects reverberate across the entire world. Remember the 2008 world financial crisis fuelled by the avarice and dubious practices of sub-prime mortgage lenders in the USA.
If ever there was a sector that must be run by the most ethical and principled persons, who drink (intoxicating liquor) less and work more, it is the financial services sector.
When you leave your money in a bank, you want to be sure it won’t be abused and you can withdraw it on demand. But because of unethical practices of some bankers, many a depositor have suffered. Witness the penury caused by the collapse of South Africa’s Saambou Bank in 2002 after its senior managers, Charles Edwards, and Gerhardus de Clercq, stole M690 million from that bank and rendered it illiquid? Then we had our own infamous MKM, which masqueraded as a bank and took people’s money when it was not even licenced to do so? But I don’ pity Basotho who were stupid enough to entrust their money in one Simon Thebe-ea-Khale, a conman turned “pseudo banker”, turned cattle rustler, and now a full time villager and thief. Why would anyone entrust their money in a man who looks like that? Aren’t bankers supposed to look sleek and lustrous? Very sadly, many Basotho were silly enough to believe Thebe-ea-Khale’s lies that if they drop their money into his MKM suitcases, he would be able to multiply it 10 times for them. Needless to mention the rest is now history.
Still my blood runs called whenever there are susurrates and murmurs of wrongdoing at any bank. The consequences of failure of a bank in a tiny comatose economy like Lesotho’s are unfathomable.
Which is why I am disturbed and bewildered by reports that Ntate Molefi Leqhaoe and his cronies have been running Post Bank like their backyard spaza shop for the benefit of their friends, relatives and nyatsis.
For the record, Scrutator does not hold an account at Lesotho Post Bank. I have absolutely nothing against that bank though. It’s just that I am extremely careful with my hard-earned cash. The other day, I bumped into Ntate Leqhaoe at Lancers Inn. He is a generally very nice, very handsome guy (not as much as Thabo Thakalekoala. May his soul rest in forever lasting peace) but good looking. Ntate Leqhaoe was on that day so sozzled that I dreaded the spectre of entrusting my hard earned Malotis with him. I am not saying bankers should not drink. They should. But in moderation. The word moderation certainly does not seem to exist in Ntate Leqhaoe’s lexicon. So I asked myself: How safe is my money at his bank if he likes the brown bottle (sometimes green bottle) that much? What if he just decides like cattle rustler Thebe-ea-Khale to take my money and go with his cronies for a drink. Remember, after stealing six cows from South Africa, Thebe-ea-Khale first slaughtered and cooked the insides of one. He was caught devouring tripe – whisky in hand – before on-passing the cows to his accomplice’s butchery.
Granted, Ntate Leqhaoe has not been convicted of the crimes the DCEO has arraigned him for. He should be presumed innocent until proven guilty. However, because of the importance of the banking sector as alluded above, this principle should be taken on its head. If you are a banker and there is a prima facie case of malfeasance against you (moreso if you have been charged), then you must be deemed guilty until you prove yourself innocent. I await Ntate Leqhaoe to prove himself innocent. In the meantime, I have to call a spade a spade. I am disappointed with him. The government’s fleet service scheme was a good opportunity to empower poor Basotho, who in the main constitute the Lesotho Post Bank’s clientele. You get a loan to buy a car, you get the government to lease that car from you in exchange of a lofty monthly payment, you then repay Post Bank with interest, and retain a profit. It was a good model to guarantee loans for the poor. The risk was minimal.
Sadly, Ntate Leqhaoe and his cronies (Chief Sales Manager, ‘Mathabo Tšehlo, and Digital Banking Manager ‘Mamohau Mapota) saw in this noble scheme, a good opportunity to not only line their pockets, but those of their relatives including their sons, daughters and nyatsis. They even went as far as summoning their relatives and nyatsis from as far as the remotest parts of Qacha to come along (with their chickens, goats and sheep in tour) to queue at Post Bank to access this facility. That was unacceptable. Scrutator awaits the DCEO to account for all the LPB staff engaged in this scam. It’s not only Ntate Leqhaoe and Co. I have the full list. I will publish it if needs be.
Enter Monaheng Mahlatsi. There is something fundamentally awful about some Basotho entrusted to handle monies for fellow Basotho then elect to abuse that trust. Why are they so unconscionable? Mahlatsi is not a banker perse. But he and his fellow conmen and conwomen have been entrusted with safeguarding billions in pensions for Basotho. They must ensure these billions are properly administered and invested.
Yet Mahlatsi sees his role otherwise. He has been doing the bidding for a company run by a certified conman by the man of Zamani Letjane. Read the story by South Africa’s reputable outlet, News 24, elsewhere in this edition. Letjane was bonking a woman, who like Mahlatsi, was the Principal Officer of the pension fund for South Africa’s municipal workers worth a whopping M26 billion. That woman then made sure he vested the rights to administer that money to Letjane. They did not declare their romantic relationship to anyone. As a result Letjane has become filthy rich. For instance, he sold a measly 1.5 hectare piece of land to the same fund he is supposed to be administering for an unbelievable M333 million. And guess what, the land belonged to Letjane himself. It would have been daylight robbery if he had sold the land to himself for M250 000. It’s was worth much less, maybe M100 00 at most.
Shamefully, this is the type of crook, Mahlatsi has been doing the bidding for. Not only has he ensured Letjane got the tender to administer the National University of Lesotho (NUL)’s pension fund, he also wants him to get access to the billions in the pension fund for civil servants, the PODCPF. Mahlatsi is a trustee of both. It is for this reason that admire the Chinese. If it were in Beijing, people like Mahlatsi and Letjane would be put up the wall and given one bullet each into their foreheads. That is why China has been able to rein in corruption. I have repeatedly warned that Basotho pensioners will one day wake up to find their pensions gone. What a pity that the pensioners are too illiterate to get to grips with this isuue?
This also speaks of the naivety of all those yearning for a 100 percent owned Basotho Bank and the expulsion of the foreign ones (Nedbank, FNB and Standard). These are the same naive people always complaining that the foreign owned banks are fleecing Basotho of their “wealth”. Well sometimes, they say experience is the best teacher. My advice to these Basotho is that please proceed to establish such a bank. Lobby the government to expel the three foreign owned ones like it is doing with foreign retailers under those insane localisation regulations. Put all your money in that bank. Appoint ntate Leqhaoe as that Basotho Bank’s CEO, with Mahlatsi as his deputy. Good luck!!!
Thank you Advocate Molelle
It would be remiss if I did not thank the Director General of the DCEO, Advocate Knorx Molelle, for his newly found zeal in nailing all suspected crooks. Well done Ntate Molelle. Please keep it up. As Basotho, we are fed up with the theft of our meagre resources. Many citizens were beginning to doubt your pedigree as there had not been much progress since your appointment. Remember, this country is so full of crooks that with successful prosecutions, we would need to outsource prisoners to jails in foreign countries. Lesotho’s prisons wouldn’t cope? ] Many Basotho have been unhappy at seeing thieves roaming free, enjoying their loot. Thanks to your efforts, the scoundrels are beginning to be accounted for one by one. The nation eagerly awaits the arraigning of all the corrupt politicians, particularly those who have been looting agricultural inputs.
And please do not bow down to these politicians and allow them to run roughshod over you. Be a man of balls of steel. Just like Hlalefang Motinyane, the DPP, has been a woman of nerves of iron. We now know from court papers that she rejected exhortations to favour certain politicians. That’s how it should be.
Of course, there are still many Basotho who remain sceptical of your efforts. They believe you are arraigning the crooks for show purposes only. They allege you will, along the way, deliberately screw up the cases to set the crooks free. They cite the case of former PS Zaly and others – which could not proceed for inane reasons. I don’t share these sentiments. I believe you honestly want to nail the crooks who have bankrupted this none-economy. Still, it remains your task to prove all the pessimists wrong by winning cases. Good luck!!!
Ache!!!
