Load shedding: the effect on business

POLOKWANE – Load shedding has become a part of life in the city after several interruptions in the electricity supply in December and last week.

Review visited local businesses to find out how they dealt with power cuts.

Ellen Mokgehle and Victor Nemukondeni from Scooters Pizza said load shedding influenced business greatly.

“We have to shut down during load shedding because the pizza oven does not work and cannot be used with a generator. Luckily we have only experienced load shedding for a couple of hours in January so far,” explained Mokgehle.

Nemukondeni added that they tried to serve customers as best they could during load shedding and that the interruption in business was usually only for a few hours.

Shafinaaz Hassim from Home Makers Paradise said they made use of a backup system for the computers and they tried to accommodate customers even though the power was off.

“It is definitely a challenge for us as the price scanners have to be plugged in. We only experienced load shedding in December but it is a big deal,” he said.

Melanie Eksteen from Nitruco Hardware said they had generators ready just in case there was load shedding.

“We are still open for business during power cuts but when it comes to the administrative side of things, the generators can mess with the computers and we have to restart the whole system.”

Thabo Mabotja and Carlisto Mbaimbai, employees of Nitruco Hardware, said they lost valuable time whenever there was load shedding.

“It takes some time for the generator to kick in, but we are still open and can help customers,” Mabotja added.

Fredah Dikotla, manager of Giramundo, said the franchise also purchased a generator for backup following the power cuts in December.

“We experienced some issues and interruptions in business with load shedding last month and decided to buy a generator. Now it is all systems go when there is load shedding,” Dikotla explained.