Loadshedding: Keeping residents in the dark
The Highway Mail spoke to several business and residents to see how they were coping with the burden of loadshedding.
LOAD shedding has descended upon South African residents resulting in extreme irritation and a negative impact on homes and businesses.
The Highway Mail spoke to the owners of some small businesses to see how they are coping.
Bayede Mkhwanazi, who is a barber in one of the salons in New Germany, said whenever there is load shedding they are forced to stop working.
“Honestly as a small business, it is killing us. The past week has been hard on us as we were not even aware that Eskom had implemented load shedding. We did not have the schedule. We are losing money. It’s December, people want to be beautiful, but if this continues, we are in big trouble.”
Mkhwanazi said they were left with unhappy clients, some who fought with them because of this inconvenient situation.
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“We do not blame them. I would also be angry if I was left with half a hair cut. The problem is mostly with the cuts and hairstyles, at least with the ‘chiskop’, we can use a razor,” he said.
Local tattoo artist, Rex Rex, said with his type of business relying on electricity to function, they have tried to work around the schedule when booking their appointments. But this works only when the schedule is followed, which is not always the case.
“We have lost two hours per day, but have tried to catch up by staying open later,” he said.
As if two hours was not enough, in some areas, residents had to endure a blackout for almost six hours.
“I live in the Inchanga area and apparently we fall under Hammarsdale grid and we have load shedding for 5.5 hours. Once it was from 4pm to 9.30pm then it was from 5pm to 10.30pm,” said Desiree Brown.
“On Sundays, we are out from noon to 5.30pm and the same on Monday, but then went off again at 8pm and came on at about 10pm. My daughter lives in Hillcrest and they should have load shedding from 6pm to 8.30pm, but it comes back on after 30 minutes. If only Eskom stuck to their times, but they don’t. It’s very annoying,” she said.
On Tuesday, 11 December, Eskom released a statement saying it will not implement stage 1 rotational load shedding from 9am today.
“However, the electricity system remains tight and the risk of load shedding still remains high for today should power station units fail to return as planned. Eskom will keep customers informed should there be any change. We continue to appeal to residents and businesses to use electricity sparingly during this period. Please switch off geysers as well as all non-essential lighting and electricity appliances to assist in reducing demand.”
This type of statement sheds no light on whether there will or won’t be load shedding.
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