A delegation from Motheo and 'Mantsopa Municipalities toured Lesotho sandstone quarry sites at Lekokoaneng and Koalabata on Thursday.

The delegation led by the Executive Mayor of Motheo District Municipality also toured Khubetsoana where stone cutting machines are produced.

In an interview, the delegation commended Lesotho on the progress it has made in reducing poverty through job creations.

The Mayor of 'Mantsopa Local Municipality, Councillor Sello Ntsepe expressed satisfaction over the sandstone production work done by Basotho saying they can learn a lot from it and also acquire skills that can assist them in their own developmental endeavours especially when the two countries share common history, culture and geography.

He said their focus is not only on sandstone production but also on other projects of economic development and sanitation in Lesotho that they can use to provide decent houses and toilets to their people especially those living in the farms.

Councillor Ntsepe mentioned that they will go back and discuss what they have experienced in Lesotho with Province so as to map the way forward and come to an agreement on how best they can adapt Lesotho's progress to reduce poverty in South Africa.

Sharing the same sentiments, the Executive Mayor of Motheo District Municipality, Mayoress Eva Moiloa said they have also learnt that sandstone is a bid cheaper as compared to corrugated bricks they use to build houses in South Africa.

She said that they will report back to their communities and agree on how many houses they can build with the sandstone from Lesotho.

The Director of PREP Mr. Topollo Lephats'oe said the Premier of the Free State has promised to give Lesotho 500 'RDP' houses to build after the completion of the construction of a demonstration house in August this year.

He explained that this can benefit Lesotho in different ways as 500 houses will generate over M1, million to Lesotho while 3000 Basotho will get jobs of constructing those houses.

He said the idea is that Basotho will train South Africans on how to build houses using stone so that they can also to do the work while Lesotho provides them with the stone.

The delegation comprised of the Mayor, Mayoress, Chief Whip and Speaker. It was invited by Lesotho through the Poverty Reduction Programme (PREP) in the office of the Prime Minister.

Source: LENA 03/07/2009