The 24-year-old cuts hair for a living and hopes to open a bakery, but the lack of electricity in his area means both business avenues are difficult to follow
Image for illustrative purposes. Picture: iStock
A 24-year-old Mpumalanga entrepreneur spends his days cutting hair and his nights dreaming about baking. But Comfort, as he’s locally known, might need to close his barber shop and give up on his passion because he simply can’t switch the lights on.
Cable theft holds back business
Cable theft might be prevalent across South Africa, but its impact is particularly felt by local entrepreneurs trying to make ends meet in Machadodorp.
“I had ideas of other business ventures, but they are all going to meet the same fate as my haircutting business,” he said. “I was going to gather enough funds and then venture to business like baking and cooking – selling goods to my fellow locals but all of that needs electricity and that would require me to have a generator and not just batteries.”
As the sole breadwinner of his family, Comfort depends on the money he makes from cutting hair and the R370 monthly unemployment grant he gets from Sassa.
Increased costs
The constant lack of electricity due to cable theft means he must find solutions to try and keep his business running.
He uses a portable battery charging station to charge his clippers and sometimes goes to his friend’s barbershop in a different section of Machadodorp.
“I need taxi money every time I go to my friend’s barber shop. Sometimes I go to my friend’s shop, and I don’t get a single customer because people in that area are not familiar with me and they don’t trust me with their hair. The disadvantage with the battery is that I can’t see how much power is left, so sometimes people refuse to cut their hair when I use the battery because it might run out of power while I’m in the middle of cutting a customer’s hair,” he said.
On a normal day with electricity, Comfort makes around R250, which is R1 750 a week. But, when there is no electricity, he loses at least half of this money.
Comfort says he has tried, unsuccessfully, to find fulltime employment. He blames the municipality and is torn about who to vote for in the upcoming local elections.
“Our municipality should stop [cable theft] and catch the criminals, but we all know that’s another story,” he said.
“I won’t vote this year because I find it useless. We are just choosing who should eat government funds.”
Unemployment in South Africa
According to the latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey released by Statistics South Africa (StatsSA), unemployment increased to 32.7% in the first quarter of 2026.
While some, like Comfort, have tried to find solutions, they end up using most of their profits to keep their business running.
As a result, they often close shop within months of opening and look for other ways to survive.
