Africa-Press – Lesotho. Lesotho Electricity Company (LEC) has shown concern over the increasing trend of copper cables in some villages of Maseru and other districts. In an exclusive interview with Informative Newspaper on Wednesday, LEC Public
Relations Manager Adv. Makhetha Motšoari stated that LEC spend M10 million in the past financial year replacing stolen copper. He stated that the company has recently received reports of cable theft from villagers
of Ha Leqele, Ha Abia and Qoaling in Maseru, parts of Mohale’s Hoek, Maputsoe Leribe and Mokhethoaneng in Berea. He said the residents in these areas complained of power cut caused by stolen cables.
“Normally this incidents of cable theft happen during the night while people are in their homes watching televisions. One would assume there is a power cut
only to find that it is caused by a cable which has just been stolen,” he said. He continued to say the suspicion is that these copper cables are sold to scrap
yards or used to illegally connect electricity to some households. He said lately LEC has resorted to using yellow cable which is also written LEC so that
it can be easily identified while stolen. He said they now use aluminum cables instead of copper for making connections as they are not easily stolen.
Motšoari further said cables theft has negative consequences to their company because when a cable is stolen, this means the company will have to take out
money to buy another one, saying this affects their budget badly. He said the other challenge caused by this is that it disrupts their connections which leads to poor connections and also affects the residents.
He said businesses and health care centres located in these areas are also affected. Motšoari further highlighted that LEC has embarked on an initiative to raise awareness
on the impact of cables theft through the media and is also hosting public gatherings with the assistance of Chiefs and Community Councilors nationwide.
“At these gatherings, we show villagers how to take care of LEC equipment and the importance of doing so. .
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