Vandalism costs LEC M1.8 million

MASERU – M1.8 million.
That is the staggering amount the Lesotho Electricity Company (LEC) has lost over the last three years through vandalism.
Despite massive media campaigns to discourage vandalism, the practice is continuing unabated.
LEC safety officer, Mohobo Nkhasi, told thepost this week that Basotho are vandalising electricity cables and are exporting the cables to South Africa, Ghana and India.

They also sell the cables to scrapyard businesses in Lesotho.
“We have been fighting this vandalism for ages. Unfortunately it is being done in Lesotho by Basotho, the people we live with and whom we trust as our brothers,” he said.

Nkhasi said vandalism is a crime and brings unnecessary costs on the LEC. “We always have expenses of maintaining where we already have done our job instead of going on to places where there is a shortage of electricity,” he said.

“The expenses of maintaining for 2014-15 was M48 000, for 2015-2016 was M1 million, 2016-2017 was M600 000 and now in 2017 we already have the expenses that cost M259 000 that we have maintain.”
Nkhasi said the LEC has many cases of vandalism against its property that are pending in the courts.

“In 2013- 2015 we had 134 cases that were reported, in 2016 we had 388 cases and now in 2017 we have 199 cases that have already been reported,” he said. “In most cases the streetlights do not work due to vandalism but every time anything like that happens the LEC is blamed.”

Thooe Ramolibeli