Cape Town - Small Cape Town businesses in Cape Town are bleeding money with every power cut, and are worried about their future after Eskom’s announcement on Tuesday that prolonged load shedding would continue to be implemented over the next few months.
Mito Zacklil, who runs a dressmaking shop on the corner of Long and Church streets, made a plea for the government to pull out all the stops to ensure Eskom’s woes are sorted out.
“Load shedding is affecting us seriously. All our machines here run on electricity, and when there is no electricity we can’t work, and if we can’t work we are going to have problems with our clients and won’t be able to pay our rent.”
Zacklil said that recently there had been power cuts every day. He pointed out a customer in his shop who had come to collect clothes that were supposed to have been ready last week. Zacklil said he would have to ask for more time as load shedding had delayed him.
“Load shedding is causing me problems, and my customers are calling me a liar because I cannot finish their clothes on the agreed date. The government must do something or else we won’t have anything to eat soon and we’ll be on the street.”
Those who can afford to have bought generators, but the longer the load shedding continues the less sustainable this option will become.
This is despite reports that diesel prices might drop by between 2 and 6 cents a litre in December.
Across the street from Zacklil’s dress shop, Juma Pasia, who runs the Mother City Barbershop and Spa, which also incorporates a hairdressing salon, said his power bill was usually R6 000 a month.
However, to ensure the smooth running of the business, he spent R10 000 on a generator that runs on diesel.
“The problem is the generator only runs for two hours, during which time it spends close to R200 worth of diesel. If load shedding is longer than two hours, that’s another R200 gone.”
A recent survey by a Cape Town- based market research and business insights firm, Yazi, found that more than 40% of respondents indicated that their loss of income, as a result of load shedding, ranged from R1 000 to R5 000 a month.
Chief executive Timothy Treagus said: “In most cases, this would constitute a loss of over 50% of a traders’ income.”
The survey found a staggering 91.4% of respondents said they did not have access to a UPS, inverter or backup battery system in their homes or businesses.
Treagus said that in September, just over 24% of respondents were unable to work for six or more hours a day.
Earlier this week, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) released its annual statistics on power generation in South Africa.
CSIR spokesperson David Mandaha said: “This year is the most intensive load shedding year to date.”
mwangi.githahu@inl.co.za