Johannesburg - Operating a small business in South Africa is becoming increasingly difficult as a result of the frequent power outages due to Eskom's inability to provide a reliable power supply.
With load shedding having been ramped up to stage 6 over the weekend it means that businesses face at least six hours without power, and the implications are obvious if not devastating.
Businessman and entrepreneur Angelo Zachariades expressed his frustration on twitter, revealing what it could mean for his business.
According to Zachariades’ calculations, he could find himself spending R1800 or more a day on diesel just trying to keep his doors open.
So when our new restaurant opens and we have stage 5 loadshedding over a weekend our generator will be running for 8 hours a day using say 9l of diesel an hour = 72l a day at say R25 a litre = about R1800 a day
How? How are we supposed to operate like this
Speaking to IOL, a frustrated Zachariades described the situation as dire and incredibly difficult.
“It’s got to the point where it is almost impossible. Unless you don't have any borrowings from the bank, you can’t afford the kind of additional costs the load shedding brings” he said.
Zachariades who owns the Mozambik restaurant in Menlyn Mall, is about to open a new stand-alone restaurant, and dreading the thought of how much additional money he will have to spend to ensure that his restaurant can operate.
“Because it’s a stand-alone restaurant and not in a shopping centre we have to get our own generator, which is gonna cost between R220 000 to R250 000. It uses approximately 9 litres of diesel an hour and at R25 a litre you can work out how much diesel you are gonna use a day over 8 hours,” said Zachariades
The knock-on effects of load shedding go beyond just keeping the lights on. Productivity and sales are also impacted negatively as potential customers choose to stay home for security reasons.
According to insurance company Dialdirect, between July 2019 to May 2022, load shedding resulted in a 3.2% increase in burglaries on week days, and these figures more than doubled, increasing the risk of break-ins by 8% on weekends.
Customers staying away from restaurants means that Zachariades’ employees earn less and this has an overall effect on the workforce as it is not sustainable to have a large staff complement who are unproductive.
“Although we pay a basic to waiters, the vast majority of their income is from service charges,” he said.
It is unclear when load shedding will abate with Eskom COO Jan Oberholzer merely saying that it will only be eased once enough generation capacity is available.
Stage 6 blackouts will remain in place indefinitely. Eskom COO, Jan Oberholzer, says it will only be eased once enough generation capacity is available. #DStv403 pic.twitter.com/rf5lVDq5P1
— eNCA (@eNCA) September 18, 2022
Speaking to eNCA, he said, :“We are not yet able to make a firm commitment as to when we will be able to ease the current stage of load shedding”.
IOL Business