A cruel joke amidst executive plunder

The bitter irony of the LEC salary increase

TEBOHO KHATEBE MOLEFI

The announcement of a meagre three percent salary increase for staff at the Lesotho Electricity Company (LEC), arriving precisely as the company is engulfed in a storm of investigations into multi-million Maloti corruption and brazen financial mismanagement by its executives, is an act of such profound, almost artistic, absurdity that it straddles the line between dark comedy and societal outrage.

It’s a decision so tone-deaf, so dripping with hypocrisy, that it becomes both extremely funny in its sheer ridiculousness and profoundly angering in its blatant disregard for justice and basic decency.

The comedic absurdity here is a masterclass in irony. The humour is gallows humour, born of incredulity; picture this, executives allegedly siphon off millions, enjoying lavish allowances and benefits that dwarf the annual salaries of the very staff keeping our lights on, however intermittently as has become the case.

Meanwhile, the workers who endure public frustration over load-shedding and crumbling infrastructure are offered…three percent. It’s like finding a single grain of rice in your bowl after the feast has been devoured by others. The sheer disproportion is laughable.

I have also been maddened by the comedic timing of this tragic farce. Announcing any increase, let alone a paltry one, while the company is under intense scrutiny for losing vast sums through alleged executive malfeasance, is akin to throwing a ‘Going out of business! sale while the police are raiding the back office for embezzlement. The cognitive dissonance is staggering.

A three percent increase in the face of rampant inflation is less a raise and more a subtle pay cut in real terms. Offering this while executives reportedly live large on company funds transforms it from inadequate compensation into a deliberate insult.

It’s the bureaucratic equivalent of patting someone on the head while stealing their wallet. It’s insulting tokenism.

To the bigwigs at the LEC, the underlying implication of this increase is grotesquely funny. Are you saying that despite your potentially bankrupting the company through alleged greed, and despite the terrible service your staff is forced to deliver due to the resulting lack of resources… ‘here’s a tiny crumb! Be grateful!’ This rewards systemic failure at the top while barely acknowledging the workforce struggling below. Are you rewarding failure?

While I may have laughed at this decision you took, the laughter dies quickly, and is replaced by seething anger because this isn’t just bad optics, it’s a profound injustice. The rank-and-file staff bear the brunt of public anger over the LEC’s failures – failures largely rooted in alleged executive corruption that drained resources meant for infrastructure, maintenance and fair salaries.

Now, they are offered a derisory increase, while you accused of causing the financial haemorrhage still enjoy ill-gotten gains, even while you sit before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to answer for your alleged misdeeds. This is textbook scapegoating and perverse incentive.

How can staff morale possibly recover? They see resources evaporate through alleged executive theft, suffer the consequences of underfunding, face public ire and are then offered a raise that doesn’t even keep pace with the cost of living. This isn’t just demoralizing, it’s actively destructive, breeding cynicism and resentment that will further cripple the company’s ability to function.

Approving this increase sends a catastrophic message that corruption has no real consequences for the institution or its workers, only potential – and often delayed – consequences for the individual perpetrators. It tells the public and the staff that the plundering of LEC doesn’t fundamentally change the company’s obligations or priorities, the show and the paltry raises must go on, regardless of the rot exposed. It makes the entire investigation by the PAC seem like a performative sideshow.

For us consumers, already burdened by high tariffs and unreliable power, this is salt in the wound. It confirms our deepest suspicions that the LEC is an entity where political elites and their cronies enrich themselves with impunity, while ordinary workers and consumers are left fighting over scraps. It erodes any remaining faith in our public institutions.

Allowing this three percent increase to proceed under these specific circumstances would be an act of gross negligence and complicity by the government – begging the question, should Qhobosheaneng allow the increase to pass?

I shout an unequivocally, No. And here is why:

Approval would endorse the LEC board/management’s decision, implicitly validating the timing and the amount despite the ongoing scandal. It normalizes the absurdity. It signals that maintaining the appearance of normalcy – via token staff raises – is more important than addressing the reality of catastrophic financial mismanagement and alleged grand theft.

Resources for this increase could be found, but funds vanished and are unaccounted for under investigation? The priorities are inverted.

Approving this raise demonstrates a stunning lack of moral leadership. The government, as the ultimate custodian of public assets that include the LEC, has a duty to send a clear message that corruption has tangible, widespread consequences. Protecting a minuscule, inflationary raise while the company bleeds millions stolen by executives is the opposite of that message.

Withholding approval is a crucial pressure point. The government should demand that LEC management first demonstrates concrete, credible steps to recover misappropriated funds, hold individuals accountable and present a realistic, sustainable financial plan before any salary adjustments – especially for management tiers – are considered. The three percent offer should be contingent on cleaning house.

The government must block this specific increase at this specific time. It must demand accountability, insist on swift, transparent outcomes from the corruption investigations and aggressive pursuit of asset recovery. Commission a truly independent forensic audit to understand the full extent of the damage and identify funds that could be used for legitimate operational costs, including fair staff remuneration.

Any future salary adjustments must be part of a comprehensive restructuring plan for the LEC, predicated on proven financial stability achieved after addressing the corruption legacy and potentially funded, in part, by recovered assets. There must also be an exploration of temporary hardship allowances or targeted support for the lowest-paid staff if absolutely necessary, funded through recovered assets or specific government grants, not as a blanket increase that ignores the context.

The proposed three percent salary increase at LEC is not compensation, it’s a punchline in a tragedy written by alleged executive greed. Its humour is the bleak humour of the utterly illogical, its anger the righteous fury of injustice made manifest.

For the government to allow it to pass would be to laugh along with the joke at the expense of the company’s customers and the dedicated LEC staff, while letting the alleged architects of the disaster potentially slip away unscathed. It must be rejected.

The only acceptable response to this scandal is not token raises, but relentless pursuit of accountability, recovery of stolen funds, and a fundamental restructuring that puts the us the public – both the consumers and the workers – ahead of the corrupt few. Anything less is an insult, wrapped in a farce, delivered with a sneer.
If the government shamefully allows this three percent increase to proceed amidst the stench of corruption, we – the very people funding LEC through punitive tariffs and suffering its unreliable service – must move beyond anger to organized, sustained action.

Remember that silence equals complicity.

We must organize widespread, coordinated non-payment of electricity bills. This isn’t about refusing to pay for power used, but about withholding funds from a demonstrably corrupt and unaccountable institution until concrete action is taken.

Publicize specific demands such as the cancellation of the three percent increase pending the investigation outcome, full disclosure of recovered assets, and a credible plan linking future staff remuneration to proven financial recovery and performance. All withheld funds must be channelled into escrow accounts managed by trusted civil society groups, releasing them only when demands are met.

We must launch relentless public protests – peaceful but impossible to ignore.

Mass marches to the LEC headquarters, government buildings, and Parliament.

Visible daily vigils.

Flood social media with evidence of the scandal juxtaposed with the insulting three percent offer. Make this injustice the defining public issue, forcing it onto the national agenda daily.

Support public interest litigation challenging the salary increase as irrational, wasteful expenditure given the proven financial crisis caused by mismanagement.

Demand Parliamentarians representing our constituencies to take a clear, public stand and initiate urgent debates or inquiries. Name and shame every official who fails to act.

We must publicly stand with the LEC staff who are victims of this farce and encourage those with evidence of corruption to come forward, guaranteeing public support and protection demands. We have to amplify their stories of hardship contrasted with executive excess.

The public, as the ultimate funders and sufferers of LEC’s failures, will not finance rewards for failure or tolerate the insult of crumbs while the feast was stolen. If the government won’t act, the people will wield their economic and civic power to force accountability.

This isn’t just about a raise, it’s about reclaiming a vital public institution from the jaws of corruption and impunity.