TWO middle-aged men who were fishing on the shores of the Mohale Dam reservoir drowned on Friday, the Lesotho Highlands Development Authority (LHDA), a multi-phased project to provide water to the Gauteng region of South Africa and to generate hydro-electricity for Lesotho has confirmed.

Masilo Phakoe, the LHDA Public Relations Manager said while fishing, the deceased who were from the neigbouring villages of Ha Mohobela and Ha Mosito released that one of their hooks was trapped under the water and they dived in to release it.

The men, he said were however, unable to retrieve their stuck hook and instead they drowned in the strong waves.  

Mr Phakoe said their corpses were fished out of the water the following day by the Lesotho Mounted Police Services (LMPS) Special Operations Unit (SOU).

He said the bodies were later transported to MKM mortuary in Maseru, adding the LHDA would await a report from the police before the next step of action could be taken.

“The LHDA will meanwhile also be focusing on the measures that need to be taken to prevent similar incidents from occurring again in future. We sincerely regret the fatal incident and have already sent out condolences to the families of the deceased,” he said.