MASERU — Families and businesses in some parts of Maseru and Teyateyaneng last week experienced electricity cuts.
This comes despite the assurance by the ministry of natural resources and the Lesotho Electricity Company (LEC) that there will be no power cuts this winter.
Earlier this month the LEC and the minister of natural resources said they had secured enough electricity to ensure that there are no cuts similar to the ones experienced last year.
However there have been continuing cuts in some areas of Maseru and Teyateyaneng.
Puleng Sebeso who runs a small take-away shop in Teyateyaneng told the Lesotho Times that she had to close down her shop when she experienced electricity cuts.
“I had to close the shop. That meant losing money. What makes it even bad is that LEC did not even bother to warn us about the cut. I could have looked for other options if I knew earlier,” she said.
Villagers in Ha-Molemane, Berea were also affected by the shortage of power supply.
An villager who refused to be named said some of his electrical appliances were damaged last week due to the unexpected electricity cut.
“My radio was damaged due to the abrupt electricity cut. LEC should have at least notified us that they were going to cut the electricity supply. We had enough of the power cuts last year. We hope this is not the beginning of the same suffering that we experienced last year,” the villager said.
Power cuts lasting longer than a day also affected certain areas in Maseru last week and during the weekend. Koalabata villagers and nearby areas said they went for a day without electricity. They said they were concerned that this might be the beginning of the load shedding.
“I am afraid we are about to experience the long and annoying shortage of electricity like last year. LEC promised us that there will not be electricity cuts this year but a month has not passed by with us not getting some power cuts,” Tiisetso from Kolabata said.
LEC had said that adequate electricity supply has been secured from ‘Muela hydropower, EMS of Mozambique and South Africa’s Eskom.
- Advertisement -
However the LEC public relations manager, ‘Mashoeshoe Motsóene said the recent electricity cuts were not a sign of load shedding.
Motsóene said there will be usual short-lived power cuts due to some faults.
“There is no load shedding. We can only experience it if our suppliers have problems leading to shortage of power,” Motsóene said.
She said the LEC will make announcements if there are signs of load shedding.