Loadshedding has a severe negative impact on small businesses that depend on consistent power supply.
To put things into perspective: imagine running a beauty salon at a mall, making R1.000.00 every 3 hours. If loadshedding goes on for 3 hours in a day your business is losing R1,000.00 per day which means it will lose R30,000.00 in a month. Moreover, while you lose a significant portion of income, your costs remain constant. Rent and salaries are due regardless of whether you made or did not make any money.
These factors can drive the operating expenses for small businesses as they attempt to stay afloat. Some businesses will resort to pushing the prices of their products and services high, to try to mitigate the burden of constantly covering additional costs as a result of loadshedding.
Some businesses resort to generate power through diesel or petrol generators. With the fuel prices at a all time high, plus loadshedding becoming frequent, South Africa could experience a significant increase in the cost of living which will in turn be detrimental to our economic growth.
Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter has been strongly criticised concerning the recent power cuts. De Ruyter said that these were due to deliberate sabotage, which was allegedly discovered at Lethabo power station near Vereeniging. He further stated that this sabotage cut have cut the power to coal conveyor belts resulting in the shut down of a major unit in the country’s grid – causing more power cuts. The Hawks are currently investigating these allegations.
