Small medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs) that are feeling the strain from Eskom’s load-shedding are appealing to the South African government to come up with a solution, because they are forced to shut their doors.
South Africa has been experiencing stage 4 load-shedding from the beginning of March. As a result, power cuts are forcing small businesses to shut their doors as swiping facilities and security cameras do not function.
Johannesburg based Gim Bekele, who owns a clothing store in Randburg, says they are losing a significant number of customers as a result of load-shedding.
“When there is load-shedding we are forced to closed the shop because people can’t come in when it is dark. The cameras are not working as well as the cashier machines,” he says.
“So that means we lose out on a lot of money. On a normal day without load shedding we make above R5,000 but when there is load shedding, it is a struggle to even reach R1,000,” says Bekele.
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Bekele says between the loss of customers and an increase in the monthly expenses he can no longer afford to pay his employees.
“I had to let go of two employees because I could no longer afford to pay them. The rent is high, and now we are barely meeting our sales target because of load shedding, how could we continue to pay for their salaries as well?”
“We can’t even afford a generator at this point,” added Bekele.
Another entrepreneur, Shaodong Zhuang who owns a takeaway shop in Randburg says his stock is compromised.
“I usually sell fresh meat and some of my meat gets spoiled and I have to throw it away,” says Zhuang.
I am basically making a small change. Our government is really not good. The people are suffering heavily because they are not running things properly.
Energy expert Adi Nchabeleng says that small businesses should brace themselves because there won’t be any turn around soon, but they could expect to see some form of solution a year from now.
“It is a delayed reaction that caused this whole advent of load-shedding. The current executive and the new democratic dispensation inherited the current dispensation of Eskom years ago and they didn’t do anything with any of power stations. They just used them as they are,” says Nchabeleng.
Nchabeleng says that it is unfortunate that small businesses have to take the heat for poor planning.
“If they do not have enough electricity reserves it means their shops and businesses must be closed. A lot of people are going to be out of jobs… So the impact of load-shedding on businesses is so severe.
“In order for the business to survive, you need to spend R500 ($7,25)-R1,000 ($14,49)daily, just to make sure that the generator has fuel, and I don’t think the government understands the seriousness of this matter,” says Nchabeleng.
“They have not woken up to the reality of what the people go through,” he added.
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He advises that in order for small businesses to weather the electricity crises, they need to reduce their expenditure but he does not foresee that as the best solution for employees.
“The usual expenses that the majority of businesses will choose to cut are their staff. They will say ‘when we have load-shedding we don’t need workers.’ We cannot go for that solution, we need to look at a much more different solution in relation to businesses,” says Nchabeleng.
He believes that the South African government should take responsibility for providing SMMEs with assistance.
“I would suggest that the government compensate the losses incurred by small businesses. This is a direct cost problem; this is not something that happened sporadically. The government knew that there was going to be load-shedding, they knew that there was not going to be enough power available,” says Nchabeleng.