A Village outside Hlotse gets electricity

A Village outside Hlotse gets electricity

Ezekiel Morake

Ha-Mpopo villagers, 15 kilometers South of Hlotse a small town in Leribe, will be happy recipients of electrification of their homes.

Minister of Energy and Meteorology Professor Ntoi Rapapa and Water Minister Samonyane Ntsekele launched the electrification of homes in the village of Ha-Mpopo and Lesitsi in Leribe last week. The villagers had applied through the village grouping scheme that contributed money ranging from M500 to M1000 so that their village could be lit up. But many governments came and passed without the villages being electrified despite being 15 kilometers from Hlotse, a town in Leribe.

Rapapa told about 150 villagers who huddled inside a tent that he had brought his ministry’s engineers so that they could see and feel for themselves how under pressure he was to electrify the village. He said that he was from Mosalemane constituency where he had battled it out with his brother Sam Rapapa who is currently All Basotho Convention Chairman and premier candidate. He said despite coming from different political parties, they still sat down and talk as a family.

He said there was no bad blood between him and his equally popular brother who also doubles as a political analysist on the local radio stations. Ntoi encouraged the villagers to have good and respectable relationships like he was with his brother.

However, Ntoi was shocked and tried to joke about the manner in which the ministers were welcomed in the village as the villagers did not sing for them or ululate for them when they arrived or were preparing to talk.

“This electricity will make your lives easy because your husbands would no longer go to the taverns to watch football and drink beer away because they would be able to watch football on television in their own houses. Also the food will be spared as it would be put in the fridges. Your children’s studying would improve as they would no longer read under the candle light and you would be able pay for services through Mpesa while you are in the house,” said Ntoi.

He advised the villagers to take care of the electricity equipment such as poles and wires so that electrification be completed on time unlike Ts’oana-Makhulo where the equipment was destroyed by some village thugs who burnt them down in a fire. A local primary school was going to be offered computers after the electrification has been completed, said Ntoi.

He said if people engage in illegal connections they would be arrested, prosecuted and locked in jail for a long time or pay a fine of M10 000, which would be followed by the disconnection of electricity for a longtime. Ntoi asked the women of Ha-Mpopo not to engage in any sexual relations with the contractors who would be installing electricity in the village and told the residents of Lesitsi, Lithabaneng and Matjelong to continue paying money in the village scheme so that by April the electrification of their villages should start.

A contractor from the village Mosiuoa Nkhabu said it was his responsibility to finish installing electricity on time at his home. He had previously stood as a political candidate but was beaten to the position by Water minister and ABC representative Ntsekele.

Ntsekele said electricity was an important thing just like water and was sure that the lives of the villagers were going to be changed forever.

However a villager Harris Morahanye said they were tired of clapping for empty promises and that they would only thank the government after the electrification of their homes.