. . . As Acting MD bares all, vows to change the parastatal’s operations
THE Lesotho Electricity Company (LEC) has hogged the limelight for the past few years, all for the wrong reasons, with the parastatal’s management recently appearing before the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to respond to a litany of allegations of mismanagement and corruption.
The parastatal has for long been in the red due to mismanagement. Consequently, the government, in October 2025, took a major step to overhaul its management to try and turnaround its fortunes and set it on a recovery path.
The Lesotho Times (LT) reporter, Rethabile Pitso, caught up with the man leading this unenviable task, Ts’eliso ‘Mokela, who was appointed Acting Managing Director in October. We asked this experienced corporate titan, about his plans to put this ailing power utility on a sound financial and operational footing.
Excerpts
LT: Since your recent appointment, you have the onerous task of cleaning up the company and restoring confidence in the power utility solely responsible for powering Lesotho’s fledgling economy. How have you started the journey?
Mokela: The government started this process when it removed the board as well as the then management when it became clear mismanagement was at play.
I was therefore ushered in to oversee the facilitation of a management contract by which the restructuring towards restoring this company’s profitability will commence.
The restructuring will affect everyone from the highest tier to the lowest, with the possibility of re-hiring staff afresh.
As part of the restructuring process, we have many vacancies that have arisen within the organisation as a result of people retiring early, while others have been submitting resignations on their own.
We now have over one hundred vacancies caused by these resignations and retirements which we are deliberately leaving open as we prepare for the processes ahead.
LT: What are some of the challenges that you have met in the two months you have been at the helm of the LEC? From your observation, what would you say is the main problem behind the dysfunction at the LEC?
Mokela: One of the most formidable challenges that I have been confronted with is my non-nepotistic approach which has stalled the way many politicians meddle with operations at the LEC……
Many of the problems at the LEC stem from politicians infiltrating the company by offering jobs politically. If they have someone sitting on the constituency committee, they would be rewarded with a job at LEC simply for being active in the party.
I’m talking about people who lack even the basics of skills, who do not fit the job descriptions of the jobs assigned to them.
What needs to be stated is that politicians contributed immensely on the downfall of this company but since my arrival I have made it a point to demonstrate that this is not a political but commercial institution.
I have no qualms with people wearing their party regalia out there and attending rallies. But that sort of thing is not going to fly here at the premises. Fortunately, I have the back-up of the government in resisting political appointments…..I have been allowed to run this institution with deserving standards, without any compromise. And I swear when I am done with it, LEC will be great again.
LEC has only stayed afloat because it is government owned. At the moment we piggy-back on government entirely; we are not at all sustainable. It became obvious to everybody when the management was called before the Public Accounts Committee that incompetent people had been running this company. Millions of maloti could not be accounted for but now when government wants to act to rectify all of that, they (the incompetents) are the ones who make the most noise.
At this point, should we expect the government to just let bygones be bygones and not take action against the culprits, even though audits reports are revealing their misconduct? Those people are now arguing they are being treated unfairly when government tries to instigate action against them. But they are the ones who put this institution in peril and they surely cannot expect to just be allowed to get away with it.
LT: So have you embarked on a restructuring process?
Mokela: To the question of whether we are undergoing restructuring, the answer is yes.
LT: Have you registered some successes yet? If that is the case, please share with us in detail what these are?
Mokela: Within the two months that I have been in office, I can say so far we have yielded some notable milestones, including reduction of financial costs central to the depreciation of the company.
Since my appointment in October this year, I made it a point to ensure that we cut out the middle man when purchasing products for the company, opting, instead, to buy directly from the manufacturers as a strategy to reduce high costs often added by crooked suppliers.
There was also unnecessary expenditure in the way LEC was managing vehicles. We have since cut down on the number of vehicles allocated to executives. There used to be so many vehicles accessible to staff, but we have restricted the usage by approving a few vehicles for certain errands.
For instance, in the past there used to be a costly practice where executives would not opt to share a vehicle even when attending the same event. Since I came in, we now ensure that one vehicle carries passengers to capacity for a similar purpose.
For example, in my company vehicle, I carry up to four other people when travelling for work related events. I don’t care for luxury as that is not meant for personal use.
When I want luxury, I get it from my own car but you see people here taking advantage of company vehicles to use for personal use. Some of these executives even have access to fuel allowances; it was just disgraceful.
LT: Are these all the steps you have implemented so far?
Mokela: I have even suggested that the number of the board directors should be reduced. Currently there are 11 of them but I believe these should be reduced to half, to reduce the financial burden of keeping a large executive in these difficult times, which is simply unacceptable.
LT: We appreciate two months could be too early for you to have fully acquainted yourself with all the issues dragging the LEC back. But from your experiences thus far, what are the other core issues you have been grappling with?
Mokela: To tell the truth, this company began to fail around 2016/17 around the time when Mr Nkhahle was the MD. Within two years he was removed and replaced with Mr Ketso whose stewardship was also dwindling before Seleke came in to finish it off.
LEC financial statements of 2022/2023 reveal that this company made a loss of M78 million and over M500 million was unaccounted for. Audits show the money was used but when questioned about where it went, they couldn’t say.
Despite this, it was shocking that the same board which was already paying salaries with a bank overdraft, proceeded to offer bonuses to staff during that predicament.
I am just emphasizing where LEC problems began, that the corruption we are dealing with today did not start recently. Everybody knows about these issues but they are less talked about because nobody wants to confront them (issues).
Things are supposed to be addressed, including the fact that some politicians are involved in LEC’s downfall; they directly participated whereas they are now shouting anti-corruption chants more than any other person.
As a result of corrupt leadership, the LEC was neglected in many areas including policy and mandates leaving the establishment to work with old frameworks which could have been revived with proper leadership.
We found our financial policy lacking a much needed update. It was last updated during times when cheques were still usable. We have just completed working on it (the update) recently.
LT: What other plans do you have on the table towards turning around the troubled company?
Mokela: Looking towards the future, my administration has signed deals that are going to usher in generation of solar power, to rescue the company from relying on purchasing expensive electricity which LEC sells at a loss locally.
Among countries in the region, Lesotho has remained one of the few with low electricity tariffs despite purchasing from Eskom at higher costs. At peak hours, LEC purchases electricity at M6 per unit from Eskom but sells it for around M1.50 to consumers, resulting in an incredible loss.
We have signed two power purchasing agreements with solar generating companies, BJT and One Power.
One will be generating about 40 megawatts of power while also providing about 20 megawatts of storage. The other one from the United States of America will generate 24 megawatts. All these efforts are geared towards removing our reliance on neighbouring Eskom.
During construction of the solar plant, over 1000 people are going to be employed and 100 will remain to oversee the project’s maintenance upon completion.
The expensive power import costs led to the LEC’s request for tariff increases from the governing body, the Lesotho Water and Electricity Authority (LEWA), a request which sparked outrage towards the LEC, but which we nonetheless deemed necessary.
As much as noise is often made whenever we propose tariffs to be increased, we still offer the lowest rate of electricity tariffs in the region.
We understand that Basotho should not be made to suffer because of our own mistakes. That we fully consider. But the LEC cannot survive on levying sub economic tariffs.
The truth is that the LEC incurs so many costs which are not even subsidized by the government. We are currently in talks with the government to extend a subsidy that would enable our bills and everyday costs to be taken care of and fortunately, so far, we have gained much support from the government.
We owe the government a lot of money for the time it rescued us when ‘Muela Hydropower Station had halted operations because of temporary maintenance. Fortunately, the government has given us 30 years to repay the debt starting from last month, November 2025.
We have not yet begun initiating such payments and have asked for an extension to begin payment next year.
The reason for that is we are also owed a lot of money by many institutions. For example, the Water and Sewage Company owes us M110 million and it has been a struggle trying to get a cent from them.
Furthermore, we still owe Eskom an outstanding M200 million which I am afraid is accumulating interest.
