Botha-Bothe, June 12 — The first witness in a case where the Smallholder Agricultural Development Project (SADP) was defrauded of M160,000 by a teacher and Standard Lesotho Bank (STD) took the stand to give evidence before the Botha-Bothe Magistrate Court.
Before Magistrate ‘Manyefolo Ramakhula, Mrs. ‘Makelello Mots’ets’ero, who works at SADP as a Project Field Officer, explained how the project was defrauded by one of the grantees who runs Lelosa Dairy and Aquaculture Farm between 2022 and 2023.
Mrs. Mots’ets’ero told the court that the first accused, Mr. Motseki Lelosa, followed the application process of the matching grants program and was entitled to a sum of M400,000, which was to be released in batches as per the milestones of the project.
She stated that Mr. Lelosa signed a contract with SADP after understanding the standard procedures of the grant. Problems only arose when Mr. Lelosa started breaking the compliance rules of the agreement. After signing the contract, Mr. Lelosa was advised to look for a bigger place to expand as the project grew and to observe environmental impact, as his project site was in a village.
