Mathatisi Sebusi
MOSEPELE Foundation Development Forum (MFDF), a youth-led local Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) offering community-led monitoring of HIV and TB services, has been left heavily indebted after US President Donald Trump cut USAID funding earlier this year.
Its former employees who were dismissed in April after funding dried up are demanding payment of their salary arrears and terminal benefits.
Maliehe Mosepele, the director and founder of the NGO told the Lesotho Times on Friday that their problems began after international NGO, mothers2mothers (m2m), also a casualty of Mr Trump’s aid cuts, in turn abruptly terminated their funding sub-contract with MFDF.
Dedicated to preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV, providing education and support, m2m assists smaller local NGOs like MFDF to secure funding for some of their programmes.
Mr Mosepele said that last year, they were approached by mothers2mothers South Africa.
“mothers2mothers approached us because there was a call for applications for USAID funding. One of the requirements was that the prime organisation leading the project should partner with local organisations to help build their capacity so that, after the project, local organisations would then manage large grants independently,” he said.
“When we applied for the grant, the total funding in the call for applications was US$60 million (just over M1 billion), but after approval, the funder reduced it to US$47 million.
“Mosepele Foundation Development Forum became a sub-recipient under a team agreement, which clearly outlined the terms and conditions of our collaboration.”
In October last year, m2m awarded a sub-grant to MFDF detailing how the project would be implemented, its budget, and the conditions attached.
“It was a one-year contract starting in October 2024 and scheduled to end in September 2025.
“The approved budget for Mosepele Foundation was US$5 million (approximately M91 million). For the first year, committed funds were M16 million. We were supposed to receive M8 million for the first six months, and the remaining M8 million after the remaining six months.
“We signed the agreement and began work. As a youth-led NGO, we were leading a component called DREAMS, which focused on adolescents and young people regarding sexual and reproductive health rights,” he said.
However, in January 2025, President Trump issued an executive order directing that USAID projects be paused pending evaluation.
“As a result, USAID was dismantled, and all programmes were moved under the US Department of State.
“We received an official letter from mothers2mothers indicating that programmes were paused and advising us to control our costs,” he said.
Later, he said, the mothers2mothers’s Country Director in Lesotho called to inform him that their project had been reinstated.
“The project, called Bokamoso (The Brighter Future), was reinstated under its original terms.
“The country director even sent us an email confirming this. We requested guidance and decided to release most staff, keeping only a skeleton team.
“However, when we later asked whether we could recall our staff since the project had resumed, mothers2mothers said they were still awaiting guidance from USAID,” he said.
Mr Mosepele said this uncertainty continued until April when they requested permission to contact the US government directly for clarification, which seems to have peeved m2m.
“Mothers2mothers retaliated by terminating our contract, claiming they were implementing a limited waiver and that our organisation was not included in its scope.
“Our understanding was that, as a sub-contractor involved in the initial eight-month grant application process, we would still receive a portion of the implementation. Instead, our contract was abruptly terminated,” he said.
He accused m2m of violating USAID regulations governing termination subcontractors, as well as their own signed agreement, which required both parties to negotiate before taking such drastic action.
“This sudden termination severely affected us. We sought intervention from the US Embassy in Maseru, which listened and tried to assist. However, we are now in debt due to the termination and are requesting mothers2mothers to pay our administration costs from May to September.
“When they learned we had approached the US Embassy, they released M270,000, but this was far too little to cover our debts. We paid some suppliers, but we still owe salaries and terminal benefits to our former employees,” he said.
He added: “Former staff members have not received their terminal benefits because mothers2mothers refused to release the funds needed to cover salaries and contributions. We now also owe the Revenue Services Lesotho a significant amount, which is accumulating penalties.
“Workers who left in April have not been paid and are threatening to sue the Foundation.
“We are requesting mothers2mothers to pay us administration fees from May to September, since the contract was supposed to end in September, to help us clear these debts,” said Mr Mosepele.
However, in a separate interview with the Lesotho Times, m2m Communications Director, Dillon Mann, strongly refuted the allegations.
“mothers2mothers is aware of the inaccurate allegations made against us by Mosepele Foundation Development Forum (MFDF), and we strongly refute any suggestion of unfair behaviour.
“This situation arose after m2m had no choice but to terminate a contract with MFDF due to dramatic changes in foreign aid.
“We have attempted to work collaboratively with MFDF to find a fair and swift solution, but this has not been successful to date. We remain open to engaging with MFDF to find a resolution so that both organisations can focus our full energies on delivering life-saving services to communities across Lesotho that need them most,” Mr Mann said.
