Small business owners in Boksburg are feeling the knock-on effect of the reintroduced stage four and higher load-shedding.
The high-stage rolling blackouts have seen some businesses being forced to close down, while those that remain resilient fear they may also have to close shop or shed jobs if load-shedding continues.
One of the local businesses, Grills & More Roadhouse & Pizzeria in the Boksburg CBD, said the loss of revenue and spoiled perishable goods which go to waste due to the frequent high-stage rolling blackouts put a huge strain on the business.
“It affects us a lot. When the lights go off, the business does not run smoothly and very few people come here. Along with losing out on business, we have to spend more money on the costly fuel to operate the generator,” said the manager Alain Kaparay.
“It doesn’t make business sense to spend on average about 20 litres of diesel to keep the fridges and equipment on to only serve one or two customers.
“On top of that, at times the generator has technical problems or there are delays in getting enough fuel. Because of business disruptions and the fridges that have lost power, our perishable items go off and the stock goes to waste. No one compensates us for the loss.
“This situation is discouraging and needs to stop. We have already suffered huge losses during the lockdown and these outages place additional strain on us.”
National disaster
Prominent local businessman Derek Fox called on the government to declare load shedding a national disaster. He described the high-stage rolling blackouts as the final attack on small businesses and the consumer.
He pointed out that small businesses constitute nearly 70% of all businesses.
“Unlike a big business that can afford to put in generators and inverters, a small business cannot. This is an assault on the market sector that creates the biggest number of jobs, which is the small business sector.”
Fox stated that operating a business in this climate is impossible, particularly when the load-shedding schedule is not adhered to.
“You can be as optimistic as you want, but you cannot operate a business in this climate. Only two hours a day is 10 hours a week and 40 hours a month. What about four hours a day, 20 hours a week, 80 hours a month?
“Still reeling from the effects of Covid-19, businesses have not recovered yet. Bring on astronomical fuel prices and now load-shedding, the perfect storm to kill an economy.
“If you ever wondered who runs the government, you now have your answer. It is sure as hell not businesspeople or even business-minded people. The business sector would have already found a solution to this crisis.”
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