Local businesses the big losers of load-shedding

Cas Kolbé, Mahindra Nelspruit dealer principal, is facing the decision of whether to purchase a generator or not.

“A large generator can cost R250 000, before you have used diesel. Am I going to be able to recover the costs? Is it worth it?”

He says services are booked by clients weeks in advance, but you only find out about load-shedding on the day, when clients have already arranged their lives around the service. With load-shedding, they cannot service everyone. As a result they have to work overtime – and have an unhappy client.

“In these economic times you are extra careful to save every cent and look after clients extra well, but you can’t,” he said. “It is a nightmare. This can drive your business under.”

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Cobus Kok, who farms with macadamia nuts, said they irrigate the trees this time of year.

“We are spraying constantly, so when the power goes off you fall behind on your schedule. Where you would have gotten to each tree every seven days, for instance, now maybe it is only watered every 12 days. It puts the trees under pressure and then they throw off their fruit and your harvest suffers. It can cost you dearly.”

Kok said he does not use generators, as the massive outlay can make you less competitive in the market when you have to recover those costs.

Pottie Potgieter, BUCO manager, said they need two large generators, which cost him roughly R2 000 per hour to run.

“Generators guzzle diesel. The costs are astronomical.”

The logistics are another nightmare, having to time when exactly to stop a process which cannot be interrupted without causing damage, as there is a break between the power going off and the generator kicking in.

“They are not exact when switching off the power. When the power goes off while you are mixing paint, the machine gets so scrambled you have to start over and throw the batch away.

“Alternatively, you have to stop work and wait for the power to go off before you can carry on. So you have to keep an eye on everyone and everything.”

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Joseph Ngala, spokesman for the City of Mbombela Local Municipality, said that during load-shedding Mbombela’s licensing department is nonfunctional and once power is restored, the systems take some time to get up and running again.

“We are facing challenges due to electricity interruptions. Every time it goes off, our systems struggle to become functional again.

The inner system cannot work and it is a consequence of load-shedding. It is a nationwide problem.

“Load-shedding does not only keep people in the dark, it also affects service delivery. We apologise and we know that some of the people who come to our offices are coming from far away. It is disappointing to find that the offices are not functioning normally,” said Ngala.

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Dumisani Malamule, Department of Health spokesman, said generators were keeping the hospitals going and fridges working during load-shedding.

Despite the uncomfortable working environment, as load-shedding has affected air cons and fans and computers for administration work, government hospitals and morgues are still functioning.

A source at a morgue confirmed that bodies were kept in the fridges and only taken out during an autopsy for about an hour.

The source confirmed that the electricity outages were playing havoc with the administration due to the computers switching off.

• How is load-shedding affecting you? Write us at editorial@lowvelder.co.za