{"id":19661,"date":"2022-09-05T07:06:32","date_gmt":"2022-09-05T07:06:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/power-outages-hit-qachas-nek"},"modified":"2022-09-05T07:06:32","modified_gmt":"2022-09-05T07:06:32","slug":"power-outages-hit-qachas-nek","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/power-outages-hit-qachas-nek","title":{"rendered":"Power outages hit Qacha\u2019s Nek"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. <\/strong><\/span>RESIDENTS of Qacha\u2019s Nek town are feeling the brunt of load shedding taking place in South Africa, thepost heard this week. The residents complained that their electronic appliances were being damaged because of the regular power cuts and \u201cthe government has been unresponsive to our cries for help\u201d.<\/p>\n

The power cuts however have not affected the business sector after the Lesotho Electricity Company (LEC) bought a standby generator for them. The LEC spent about M11.6 million to buy two standby generators, one for Qacha\u2019s Nek and another for Mokhotlong district which also suffers from load shedding.<\/p>\n

Qacha\u2019s Nek and Mokhotlong districts get power directly from Eskom and so when South Africa implements load shedding, they also suffer. The rest of Lesotho gets its electricity from the \u2019Muela Hydro-Power Station.<\/p>\n

The residents said their electronic appliances such as fridges and televisions were getting destroyed every time there is load shedding, which happens twice or thrice every week, especially in winter.<\/p>\n

A South Africa-based Electrical Contractors\u2019 Association (ECA)\u2019s website says while poor quality products and bad installations can cause problems, \u201cload shedding will damage even the best of electronic products on the market, eventually leaving them broken beyond repair\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reason for this is not the loss of power, but the surge of current and voltage spikes when the electricity is switched on again,\u201d the ECA quotes Rhodam Evans from Major Tech as saying.<\/p>\n

The ECA says single-phase power in the average home runs on 230 V and when the lights come on again, all the appliances in that particular suburb suddenly get a surge and voltage spike much more powerful than 230 V.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis only lasts for a microsecond, but it is enough to damage electrical equipment, from your television to your lights,\u201d Evans is quoted.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven the most-well-designed equipment of the highest quality can simply not handle these surges time after time.<\/p>\n

Many electrical devices are built with some form of protection against voltage spikes, but these are designed to handle surges that happen occasionally, not daily or even multiple times daily.<\/p>\n

\u201d This explains why residents in Qacha\u2019s Nek say they have lost appliances because of load shedding.<\/p>\n

One of the residents, Bami Lepheane, said his TV set shut off and he took it to a repair and when the load shedding hit again within a month the TV broke down for good.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government has to do something about this,\u201d Lepheane said. Mokoali Tlali, another resident, said he was advised to buy surge protectors after losing two radio sets within two months.<\/p>\n

Thabo Setlaba, the Souru FM station manager, said the frequent load shedding is giving him \u201csuch a big problem at the radio station\u201d. \u201cWhenever the electricity is off, that means the radio is also off, we are really facing a problem in Qacha\u2019s Nek,\u201d Setlaba said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe equipment that we use gets damaged because no one is ready when the electricity will be off,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a government that does not care,\u201d he said, adding that the government only cares for the interests of the elites.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been ages since the government promised to generate electricity for Qacha\u2019s Nek locally but even today we are using electricity from South Africa.<\/p>\n

They have made promises but the government has failed to fulfill such promises. \u201d Likopo Mosesi said this load shedding problem hinder people from doing their day-to-day work.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the electricity is off the food gets rotten, we cannot freely communicate with our friends through social media because our phones will also be off and sometimes we will have no food because some of us use electrical stoves only,\u201d Mosesi said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a very serious problem,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Mosesi added that if this electricity was generated locally, that would have been better because by the time it gets off, the LEC would quickly work on the problem.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the fact that it is not generated locally means sometimes we spend some three days without it or even a week,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

In the 2020\/2021 financial estimates, the then Finance Minister Dr Moeketsi Majoro proposed construction of 10 mini-grids to assist power supply in Qacha\u2019s Nek and Mokhotlong.<\/p>\n

Majoro, now the Prime Minister, said construction of 10 mini-grids and 10 energy centres was planned for 2020\/21 in Mokhotlong, Thaba-Tseka, Mohale\u2019s Hoek, Quthing and Qacha\u2019s Nek.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Lesotho<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. RESIDENTS of Qacha\u2019s Nek town are feeling the brunt of load shedding taking place in South Africa, thepost heard this week. The residents complained that their electronic appliances were being damaged because of the regular power cuts and \u201cthe government has been unresponsive to our cries for help\u201d. The power cuts however […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":19660,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,8,16],"tags":[233,246,245,931],"class_list":["post-19661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","category-homepage-english","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-lesotho","tag-lesotho","tag-nek"],"yoast_head":"\nPower outages hit Qacha\u2019s Nek - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/power-outages-hit-qachas-nek\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Power outages hit Qacha\u2019s Nek\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Africa-Press – Lesotho. RESIDENTS of Qacha\u2019s Nek town are feeling the brunt of load shedding taking place in South Africa, thepost heard this week. The residents complained that their electronic appliances were being damaged because of the regular power cuts and \u201cthe government has been unresponsive to our cries for help\u201d. 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