Business hub drops power woes at City and Eskom’s doorstep
Alrode businesses and corporate giants alike made their heartfelt grievances heard when they recently converged with representatives from the Alberton Energy Department and Eskom.
Alrode Business Forum spearheaded an urgent meeting on July 28 in Alrode, which was prompted by recently extended power cuts due to load-shedding and power interruptions.
After years of being crippled by power woes in the City of Ekurhuleni’s business hub, which affects their machinery and cripples their pockets, businesses are still on the receiving end of the devastating impact caused by power woes.
During the meeting, chaired by Jonathan David of Bandag SA, businesses agreed to work with Alberton Energy Department and Eskom. Their proposals were put on the table which will be discussed further.
The more than 80 businesses that showed up came up with a proposal of being load-shedded ‘reasonably’, without having their livelihoods affected.
An energy crisis committee was also formed to directly deal with power issues in Alrode, with which Ward 94 Councillor Samantha Nair is also part.
Nair said a number of suburbs have had load-shedding for more than the normal hours as per the load-shedding schedule.
“In Albertsdal after load-shedding power is restored sometimes 30 minutes and at other times more than an hour later. In Randhart, load-shedding at one stage ran for six hours. In Alrode businesses are suffering due to the extended time periods of load-shedding,” she explained.
She said in her opinion businesses should be totally exempted from load-shedding or should rather be given load reduction. Due to the current situation, many businesses have closed down and others are losing millions on a daily basis. This has a huge impact on the economy and labour,” she said.
Nair said the biggest challenge was that there is no constructive response from the department. She pleaded with the energy department to see how best they may resolve the power woes.
Alrode South business owner, Oliver Hay of Big Ideas 3D Printing, said power goes on and off at random, and that this poses a serious challenge to their profit margin.
“The impact on us is devastating to be completely honest. We’ve had to extend times for customers, we have turned away some work and we have had to spend about R120 000 to buy inverters. As it stands, that’s not a long-term solution. Our cost to produce products is higher than before.”
