Loadshedding is hitting business in the popular suburb of Sea Point on the Cape Peninsula very hard.
The Stage 4 scheduled times are effecting both the lunch and supper services of the more than 70 restaurants in the area.
La Perla is a family-run Italian restaurant. Manager Ritesh Sewsunker says, “The guests are not allowed to order everything off the menu and I mean there’s crucial items that can’t be served. I mean you can’t serve coffee for instance; certain cocktails with the blenders. The kitchen’s unable to make certain items. So, that has made a major impact on guests that frequent the restaurant.”
Sea Point attracts many tourists who would have encountered closed doors and darkened streets when they could be spending their hard currency. But its not only restaurants that suffer.
Other small enterprises like hairdressers pay exorbitant rent but sit and twiddle their fingers during loadshedding.
Waitrons at the restaurant say loadshedding has affected their pockets. They say they are working twice as hard but for less money.
“We’ve got less business and it affects us also on our tips as waiters and as workers here at La Perla.”
Sea Point is a mecca for tourists with a hungry tummy. It boasts more than 70 restaurants. But with loadshedding happening between 12:00-14:30 & 20:00-22:30 lunch and supper revenues are taken out.
Food is often prepared in advance and will spoil if not consumed.
Waiters earn most of their income from tips.
Meanwhile, the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town says ongoing loadshedding has a minimal effect on shoppers and trading at the mall.
Waterfront spokesperson, Donald Kau, says their back-up generators provide enough power for operations to continue as normal during loadshedding.
“We’ve been able to trade as normal, using our backup generators to come on when the load shedding happens. So we’ve really seen very little impact across the shopping as well as most of our restaurants and shopping areas.”
No plan to implement stage 5 and 6
Eskom says it’s focused on reducing the loadshedding schedule and there are currently no plans to implement stage 5 and stage 6 loadshedding.
South Africans have been experiencing stage 4 loadshedding since Saturday.
The embattled power utility says the current power problems are a result of Cyclone Idai which has gripped Mozambique as well as maintenance issues at various power plants.
South Africa imports some electricity from Mozambique. Eskom Acting Head of Generation, Andrew Etzinger says they are confident that they can manage the current situation.
