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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:History of electricity in Lesotho and the place of 'Muela hydropower plant in the wider context of the Southern African Power Pool
Author:Tsikoane, TumeloISNI
Year:2008
Periodical:Review of Southern African Studies (ISSN 1024-4190)
Volume:12
Issue:1-2
Period:December
Pages:107-149
Language:English
Notes:biblio. refs.
Geographic terms:Lesotho
Southern Africa
Subjects:electricity
power plants
development
Economics, Commerce
Electricity--History
Economic development--Social aspects
External link:http://opendocs.ids.ac.uk/opendocs/handle/123456789/6407
Abstract:This paper examines the history of electricity in Lesotho from the colonial time to the present within the broader framework of socioeconomic development. It focuses on the potential of the 'Muela hydroelectric plant, one of the major components of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project, to contribute to socioeconomic development. Discussing the 'Muela hydropower plant project, the role of the Lesotho Electricity Corporation and the wider context of the Southern African Power Pool, the paper raises three related issues. First, that the project nature of the power plant severely limited its potential relative to the need to electrify the countryside for purposes of expediting socioeconomic transformation. Second, that privatization of electricity as a social product is inimical to the government of Lesotho's professed policy of social provisioning with a view to achieving national development and eradication of rural poverty. Third, the paper identifies a significant disparity between policy assertions and evidence on the ground. It argues that the ambiguities surrounding policy statements on national electrification in Lesotho are less of an accident than testimony that the capital-intensive nature of the 'Muela hydropower plant excludes the rural poor from being the immediate beneficiaries of the power from the station. Bibliogr., sum. [Journal abstract]
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