Lesotho officials in cannabis ‘conflict’

Two senior Lesotho health ministry officials, who oversee cannabis industry licensing, are linked to a company that plans to manufacture medicinal cannabis in the kingdom.

London-listed Afriag Global PLC announced in an interim results statement last year that it had appointed the ministry’s director of pharmaceuticals, Germina Mphoso, and its legal officer, Masello Sello, to a technical committee “responsible for reviewing potential investments within the medicinal cannabis sector and reporting to the company’s board on a regular basis”.

Afriag Global (Pty) Ltd, a Lesotho company associated with the London-listed Afriag, has been licensed to produce medicinal cannabis.

Louisiana is becoming the first Deep South state to dispense medical marijuana, four years after state lawmakers agreed to give patients access to therapeutic cannabis.

Lesotho’s minister of health, Nkaku Kabi, and principal secretary for health Lefu Manyokolo told the MNN Centre for Investigative Journalism they knew nothing of the appointments.

“The ministry was not aware of [the two officials’] involvement in the cited company. We shall inform you at a later stage [of] the findings of our investigations,” Manyokolo said.

The principal secretary at the time the appointments were made, Mole Kumalo, also denied giving the required permission for the officials to serve a private company.

It has also been established that one of the shareholders in both the London and Lesotho versions of Afriag is controversial businessman Paul de Robillard who was allegedly implicated in a 2010 tax probe in South Africa as a member of a tobacco smuggling ring.

De Robillard has denied the tobacco smuggling allegations. He did not answer his phone or respond to questions sent by WhatsApp about the Lesotho venture.

Also linked to the Lesotho venture is Durban-based businessman Yusuf Kajee, De Robillard’s business partner and a former business associate of Jacob Zuma’s eldest son, Edward Zuma.

Kajee also failed to answer his phone or respond to WhatsApp questions. Afriag Global PLC said that it was “working hard toward significantly expanding our medicinal cannabis footprint in the southern African region”.

Lesotho, as the first African country to legalise the growth of cannabis for medicinal and research purposes in 2017, was an obvious target.

Canada and some states in the US have since opened their markets for the country’s medicinal cannabis.

Mphoso and Sello’s duties include leading the Lesotho Narcotics Bureau responsible for the administration, compliance and enforcement of the Drugs of Abuse Act of 2008, which governs Lesotho’s cannabis industry.

They review cannabis licence applications and make recommendations to the minister for the issuing of licences, with Mphoso scrutinising the pharmaceutical aspects and Sello checking legal compliance.

The MNN Centre for Investigative Journalism was unable to establish whether the two have been paid by the London company for their services.

Both refused to answer questions. “I am not going to disclose anything to you until you tell me where you got my phone numbers,” Sello said in a phone interview. Mphoso insisted that questions should be addressed to the ministry’s principal secretary. “Follow the procedure, period. This is not a private matter,” she said.

This is contradicted by the minister and current and former principal secretaries’ denials.

Kumalo, the principal secretary at the time the appointments were made, said: “Should the ministry approve such appointments, that could have been done by myself as by law, all approvals are done by the chief accounting officer. But in their case, I never approved any appointments.”

Lesotho public service regulations state that “except with the approval of the minister, a public officer shall not undertake remunerative or unpaid work outside his or her official duties or use office equipment for such work”.

The public servant good practice code stipulates that a public officer shall “disclose to proper authority in his or her direct or indirect financial interest [including loans and shares] in any undertaking”.

Contacted through Twitter, Afriag Global PLC’s executive chairman, David Lenigas, promised to respond to questions, including whether Afriag is paying Mphoso and Sello, but had not done so at the time of publication. 

Initially a company that invested in the African agri-logistics sector, Afriag announced plans last year to expand its investment strategy “to also include investments in companies, projects or products that are progressing research in and development of medicinal cannabis and its derivatives”. 

This included those “producing or cultivating medicinal cannabis, producing or supplying products derived from or related to cannabis [including, but not limited to, hemp and cannabidiol products]; and/or commercialising or marketing medicinal cannabis and its derivatives”. — AFP

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