The Restaurant Association of South Africa (RASA) says it’s concerned about the worsening energy crisis in the country.
This was in reaction to the announcement by President Cyril Ramaphosa of measures being put in place to address the electricity crisis.
These include allowing private households to generate solar power and sell it back into the grid, the procurement of additional baseload capacity from renewables and gas, and accelerating private sector involvement in energy generation.
RASA says the cost of running generators to keep their businesses going, coupled with inflation and the price of fuel has crippled the industry.
The association’s Wendy Alberts is calling for the government to offer relief to businesses still recovering from the economic difficulties of the COVID pandemic: “You know we are talking about the further implementation of solar panels at what cost with the high-interest rate now, makes it unaffordable. We won’t be able to take further loans, our industry is already drowning in debt we’ve been crippled by the inability to trade through COVID. There simply aren’t enough resources to be able to put funding together to put up another energy alternative in place. Everything comes at a cost, the cost to run generators now is very very expensive.”
