Moshupa distraught as co-op millions allegedly vanish
Innocent Selatlhwa | Monday February 20, 2023 06:00
Moshupa Co-op members are crying foul that their money could have been looted with the business on its knees and over 8,000 members' savings amounting to over P3.5 million having vanished into thin air.
This is in addition to businesses run by the co-op that includes a general dealer, liquor restaurant, and agricultural shop having closed shop as there is no stock. Mmegi visited Moshupa during the week and met desperate, hurt, and hopeless members of the co-op licking their wounds. Information gathered suggests that the co-op committee and or management could have fleeced them of their monies which were never supposed to be used for any business investments.
It was further revealed that the committee, which currently has five members, has overstayed for many years and the last audit was reportedly done in 2015. Mmegi has established that of the over 8,000 co-op members, their monies ranged from as little as a few pulas and others having as much as P150,000 in their savings. Mmegi also established that tensions got so high that one of those who were owed carried a gun to Moshupa Police Station and asked to be accompanied to get his money from the co-op.
The man would be given his money after the intervention of Kgosi Oscar Mosielele. In another sad revelation, the family of a member who died with their account bearing at least P15,000 were only given P200 when they wanted to use the money for the funeral.
According to information gathered by Mmegi, it came to the fore that trouble was brewing in July last year when members could not even cash as little as P50 from their deposits. This is despite the fact that they knew that only P200 was for their shares to invest in the co-op while the rest of the monies they deposited was to be available to them whenever they needed it.
A distraught Ngaka Morapedi said a lot of elderly people in the village had been using the co-op thinking they were avoiding bank charges only to lose their monies. “It is very painful that this happened to mostly people who are elderly and the disabled and they do not know what to do. They sell their cattle, farm produce, save their Ipelegeng and pension earnings and other proceeds knowing it is at the safest place. This was for them to use in times of need, now imagine when one cannot even get anything to help them manoeuvre demands of living,” Morapedi said.
Mmegi team visited one of the victims, Gofaone Moanakgabo who together with her two daughters, Kgopolo and Constance, have lost their money when they needed it the most.
Kgopolo is a person living with disability (speech-impaired) and survives on sweeping yards for people and saving her money at the co-op. After the team introduced itself to her and shared its intentions to speak to her about the co-op issues, Moanakgabo who has been a member of the co-op since 1999 almost fell from her chair stating that the mention of the co-op brought so much pain to her. She said she was saddened by the fact that the whole deal was making her disabled daughter attack her at times accusing her of using up the money. “I have been a member of this co-op for a very long time. We used to get bonuses and interests at year-end, but that diminished, but we never thought it could get to a point where our savings for emergencies could vanish. Trouble started in July last year when I was to go for medical attention in Francistown.
I asked for P200 and was told I should check later as there was no money. I could not even get P50. It would then emerge that a lot of us could not get our money and we would then be called to a meeting where we were told we would get back our money by October 2022. That is, however, not the case as we continue to wait even after reporting to authorities,” she said. Moanakgabo said what saddened her more is that Kgopolo gets upset with her about her money which was to be used to build her a house at her plot.
She said in the past the money helped her with cover costs for the funerals of loved ones. “She worked hard saving her money so we could assist build her own house before her plot can be repossessed. But, now she is frustrated and accuses me of using her money for my benefit. I also know of another disabled person who lost monies. They beat up their mother demanding the money back.
It is painful because we trusted the co-op blindly knowing they would do right.” Another victim, Kagiso Mokibe who joined the co-op in 2005 said all she wanted was to save and be able to use her money when she wished to. “Usually, you would book if you need anything more than P500, so they can prepare a cheque for you. When I went there in July to apply for P1,000 to take my son for medical attention, I was told there was no money and that I had to wait until somebody came to deposit, but to date, I have not even gotten a cent though I have over P9,000 in my account,” she said.
In following up on the issue, Mmegi spoke to Kgosi Mosielele who acknowledged the problem.
“We have indeed been asked to intervene by many villagers who realised only last year that there could have been mismanagement of funds. A lot of elderly people in our village used the co-op as their bank and they have been left in the lurch,” he said. Mosielele said they have since advised those who came to consider available legal action if need be. Karabo Gare, who is the area's legislator and Minister for Entrepreneurship which oversees cooperatives through the Department of Co-operatives and Cluster Developments, said auditors were on the ground to get to the bottom of the problem. “Co-ops do fall under my ministry, but there is not much I can say at the moment because the audit is ongoing to establish the cause of the problem. I have updated my constituents about it during a Kgotla meeting,” he said.
Gare said as government, they facilitate the formation of co-ops through laws and owners and beneficiaries are members. “They should in my view ensure that they put controls in place to avoid unfortunate incidents like what happened in Moshupa. As government, we make the laws and schedule audits to check compliance. It is high time they are run like proper businesses and I realise that as government we can only provide an enabling environment and not run the co-ops for them,” he said. Efforts to get a comment from the Moshupa Co-op management and board hit a snag.
Mmegi team visited General Manager Phillip Shibaloko at his co-op office. He, however, would not comment stating that he needed the green light from the board chairperson, Donald Tema Mothudi whose phone could not be reached at press time. When the publication finally got hold of Mothudi over the phone, he said he could not offer a comment before meeting with his board. “We meet once a month around the 25th. It is only after being mandated by the board that I can grant you an interview,” he said.
With no official answers from the cooperative, its management is wary of the powder keg they are possibly sitting on. From the interviews of the Moshupa villagers Mmegi met this week, it is apparent that villagers who had their hopes high but have been heavily let down by the cooperative are slowly running out of their patience. To them, they now classify the problems they encounter at the cooperative as not an investment gone bad but simply a 'heist' by those who claimed to safely manage their monies.