Small business owners in Johannesburg say they fear power disruptions will have a negative impact on their businesses. This follows Eskom having imposed its first load shedding this season. On Sunday Eskom announced that it was implementing stage 2 load shedding.
Small business owners say they are afraid this could be a common occurrence deep into the winter season.
“We currently have 14 000 megawatts of capacity out on breakdowns while another 2300 is out on planned maintenance. While the situation has improved, at this point we would like to urge the public to continue using electricity sparingly. We do expect the system to improve further this week as Eskom teams are working continuously to return more generation units to service. Should there be any significant changes to the power system we will let the people of South Africa know,” said Eskom Spokesperson, Sikhonathi Mantshantsha, giving an update on load shedding.
Loadshedding will be reduced to Stage 1 from 17:00 until 22:00 as generation capacity improves
further@News24 @SABCNews @NewzroomAfrika @eNCA @IOL @ewnupdates @SundayTimesZA @SowetanLIVE pic.twitter.com/4do5NeqrE3— Eskom Hld SOC Ltd (@Eskom_SA) May 18, 2021
This is worrisome to Tsakani Mabasa who ventured into the business of selling kotas in Meadowlands, Soweto, to feed his family after he struggled to get a job.
“The problem that we have is that if we do not have any electricity we do not have any business and we do not have any income. So, it does affect us big time because we need to support our kids.”
Mabasa says it is not only his fast-food spaza that suffers but also school children in the township.
“Our kids as well because sometimes they need to do their homework and they need to use laptops but once the battery runs out and you don’t have electricity, you cannot do anything,” says Mabasa.
Not far away from Mabasa is Mcgina’s Hair Salon. Mcgina says his hairstyling business has been struggling since the hard lockdown, and load shedding is making it impossible for him to even pay rent.
“Load shedding is setting us back. We can’t even work because of it. I’m even struggling to pay rent. It’s tough,” says Mcgina.
Thomas Joau owns a small-medium enterprise in Industria, Johannesburg. They are in manufacturing.
Joau says load shedding makes him lose customer confidence because he is unable to meet deadlines. He says he has been unable to buy a backup generator because his business is still emerging.
“You find that there’s no electricity and sometimes we have to go back. Even yesterday we didn’t have electricity. We are fighting with customers when they come. I can’t afford to buy a generator. This is a small business and no one can afford to buy a generator here,” says Mcgina.
