BUSINESSES in Alrode are losing millions of Rand worth of revenue due to power going off for hours and sometimes days at a time.
The financial hub of Alberton seems to be suffering due to the problems caused by all the work-time lost, putting a strain on businesses, their owners and staff.
According to one of the business owners, the substation on Barnato Road, Alrode South, that supplies power to Tarry Road, keeps losing a phase.
“This has been an ongoing problem for the last few months and has cost us a huge amount in downtime and equipment,” says Ryno Louw.
”The energy department comes out and changes the fuses, but a few weeks later it’s down again. It’s a struggle for us to contact the energy department and find some assistance in getting out a technician as fast as possible to replace a fuse, so that we can carry on with business.
”We have had ongoing power outages in our area, which pretty much cost us full days of production each time they occur, despite the numerous phone calls reporting the problems and consistently following up on the progress.
Business owner Gerhard Louw says that there is no sense of urgency on the part of the authorities, nor regard for the loss of income that is suffered by the companies in this industrial area.
“In the last two weeks alone we have lost several full days, which is costing us hundreds of thousands of Rand in lost production and damaged equipment and computers,” says Louw. “We have had extraction motors burnt out, lost computers, a damaged switchboard and abnormal failure of electrical hand tools, all of which are related to the inconsistent supply of power.
”This adds to our losses and extends the down time way past the duration of the power outage.
“Further to the direct losses, we cannot quantify the loss of future revenue from clientele who take their business elsewhere due to our poor service and late deliveries.
”Unlike the councils, who have a captive market, we have to compete in a fiercely competitive market, where poor service delivery is just not accepted and we lose business as a result thereof.”
On Wednesday, October 12, Stephen Nowatha, customer relations manager for Alberton (Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality), replied to a horde of e-mails sent by several affected parties and role players by saying: “I will send engineers now. And my apology for late response as I was offline.”
THE RECORD will keep an eye on the situation and keep our readers informed. If there are any other business owners or residents affected by this, we encourage you to contact us with your feedback on: davidp@caxton.co.za.
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