{"id":30259,"date":"2023-06-18T13:22:15","date_gmt":"2023-06-18T13:22:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/pay-your-debts-says-lec-boss"},"modified":"2023-06-18T13:42:35","modified_gmt":"2023-06-18T13:42:35","slug":"pay-your-debts-says-lec-boss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/pay-your-debts-says-lec-boss","title":{"rendered":"Pay your debts, says LEC boss"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. <\/strong><\/span>The Lesotho Electricity Company (LEC) says it is under pressure to introduce load-shedding due to the non-payment of debts. The non-payment, including by the government and individuals, has now put pressure on the electricity company.<\/p>\n

LEC Managing Director Mohato Seleke told a press conference on Tuesday that the main goal was to address the company\u2019s debt collection exercise and the push to disconnect customers who fail to settle their debts within a given time-frame.<\/p>\n

He said starting from today till the end of August will be \u201ca hard time for the company as the usage of electricity is very high\u201d. The LEC imports a lot of electricity from Mozambique and South Africa and it does not buy on credit.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn June last year, we roughly estimated to have used 196 megawatts of electricity,\u201d Seleke said.<\/p>\n

He said the \u2019Muela Hydro-Power plant produces only 72 megawatts and \u201cif we were estimated to be consuming 196 megawatts one can only imagine how much electricity we were to import\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said in June last year one of the three turbines broke. \u201cIt is still in that condition even now. \u201d He said this means from that 72 megawatts of installed capacity they now have to subtract 24 megawatts and the remaining amount is the only amount that the country is producing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you subtract you will see how much amount we have to import from South Africa and Mozambique to sustain Basotho,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSouth Africa has increased its selling price by 18.69 percent.<\/p>\n

. effective from April 1 this year even though we have not passed it on to our consumers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said Mozambique has also increased its selling price by a percentage higher than that of South Africa even though he could not say the exact percentage because they are still negotiating.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is even worse about Mozambique is that we purchase in US dollars.
\nHe also said the private sector has a debt of M57 million, the public sector has a debt of over M80 million and individuals have a debt of M102 million.<\/p>\n

\u201cIndividuals use pre-paid electricity but the problem is that when one applies for the electricity they pay a deposit and when the process is complete, they never settle the remaining amount,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said they have been trying hard to collect debts from consumers and that is the only thing that has sustained Lesotho from experiencing load-shedding.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf these debts are not paid Lesotho is at a high risk of having load-shedding.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll these other countries that are experiencing load shedding also receive subsidies from their governments and LEC has only received a subsidy of M45 million in 2014 for maintenance yet we still managed to have our lights on,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Seleke said it is important to pay debts because they use that money to purchase bulk power. \u201c\u2018We used over M800 million cash last year to purchase bulk power from June 1, which is our winter season,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring peak hours, which is from 5pm to 7pm, we import one unit with M5.22 of which we sell at M1.67 or M1.70 to our consumers,\u201d he said. He said this only happens during peak hours in the winter season. Seleke said by the end of June they are going to submit a multi-year tariff.<\/p>\n

Seleke said the tariff application is going to last for three years and it is also going to show the reflection of the real cost of delivery of service.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know for a fact that Basotho are going to complain but this tariff is going to last for a longer period,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlso it is going to give us revenue assurance.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Africa-Press – Lesotho. The Lesotho Electricity Company (LEC) says it is under pressure to introduce load-shedding due to the non-payment of debts. The non-payment, including by the government and individuals, has now put pressure on the electricity company. LEC Managing Director Mohato Seleke told a press conference on Tuesday that the main goal was to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":30258,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5,7],"tags":[233,246,129,245],"class_list":["post-30259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-economy","category-head-lines","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-lesotho","tag-electricity","tag-lesotho"],"yoast_head":"\nPay your debts, says LEC boss - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Lesotho Electricity Company (LEC) says it is under pressure to introduce load-shedding due to the non-payment of deb ...\" \/>\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\/pay-your-debts-says-lec-boss\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pay your debts, says LEC boss\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Lesotho Electricity Company (LEC) says it is under pressure to introduce load-shedding due to the non-payment of deb ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/pay-your-debts-says-lec-boss\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lesotho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-06-18T13:22:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-06-18T13:42:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2023\/06\/sm_1687079494.061118.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/pay-your-debts-says-lec-boss#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/pay-your-debts-says-lec-boss\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Pay your debts, says LEC boss\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-06-18T13:22:15+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-06-18T13:42:35+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/pay-your-debts-says-lec-boss\"},\"wordCount\":623,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/pay-your-debts-says-lec-boss#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2023\/06\/sm_1687079494.061118.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Lesotho\",\"electricity\",\"Lesotho\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"economy\",\"head lines\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/pay-your-debts-says-lec-boss#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/pay-your-debts-says-lec-boss\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/pay-your-debts-says-lec-boss\",\"name\":\"Pay your debts, says LEC boss - 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