Businesses on Meyer and Pretoria streets in Germiston suffered loss of income as they had been without power from November 25 to December 2.
The business operators shared their frustrations with GCN. Lorraine Muttitt, owner of Smitty’s Family Outfitters, said they have been operating in the dark.
“Our shop has been operating in Germiston since 1945. We are one of the oldest shops in Germiston CBD – we have been without power for almost a week now,” Muttitt said on Wednesday.
“We have been using a generator, which costs us about R1 000 to power per day. CoE has to do something about this,” said Muttitt.
She added that she feels sorry for other business operators who cannot afford the use of a generator to continue their business operations.
“It is painful to see people suffer because the city can’t get its act together.”
Ezenwa Onouha is another business owner who has struggled to continue operations without power.
His shop sells Nigerian foodstuff that mostly needs to stay in the refrigerator.
“Without a fridge, my stock goes off. I lose money,” said Onouha.
From Meyer Street, business operator Ismail Mohammad, manager of Soweto Wholesalers, was angry when he expressed his grievances to GCN.
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“We have been calling the call centre and received reference numbers but no one has come to fix the issue.
“All they do is to give us reference numbers and empty promises. They have been promising us that they will come to fix it but no one has been seen making an effort,” said Mohammad.
“The generators have been costing us a lot, we have been buying 10 litres of petrol every two days and the prices are ridiculous. It is month-end now, everyone wants their rent in full and the municipality wants its bills paid in full, and yet it does not help us,” said Mohammad.
GCN sent a request for comment to CoE on December 2, requesting comment by December 3 at 12:00.
At the time of going to print, no comment had been received.
