The heavy ‘load’ of load shedding has on the local business sector

The Herald spoke to local business owners to see how the load shedding affects them.
John Mbombi, who runs a hair salon from home in Nkowankowa Township, said during load shedding he loses a lot of business and he is forced close the salon until electricity returns.
“During stage 6 the township can experience up to five hours of no electricity, putting on hold a lot of businesses that rely on electricity, ”he said.

Meanwhile, a well-known graphic designer in Arbor Park who wishes to remain anonymous, told the Herald that load shedding does not really affect her that much as she has an invertor which helps them to work even when the power is off.
“At the moment I don’t have R70 000 to buy a generator, hence we opted for an inverter.
“However the production machine is not able to use the inverter as it uses more energy.

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“So load shedding delays our production time and sometimes it does not sit well with our clients, as our production machine takes about 30 to 45 minutes to recharge after load shedding so we lose a lot of time,” she said.
The business owner also added that on her perfect world there would be no load shedding, but because it is not the country’s reality at the moment she would love to have more to buy her own solar panel.

Meanwhile Linda Visagie, a hair salon owner in area 10 in Tzaneen, said load shedding has taught her to plan better for her day.
However, now she is pleased she has not experienced any load shedding in the past two weeks.
Visagie says this is because her business is situated near the Grade12 marking centre at Ben Vorster High School in Boundary Street.