Load shedding: Economist asks why schools are exempt but not businesses

Economist Dawie Roodt disagrees with the court ruling to exempt schools, hospitals and police stations from load shedding.

Load shedding exemptions

Last week Judge Norman Davis from the High Court in Pretoria ordered Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan to ensure all hospitals, clinics, schools and police stations were exempted from electricity disruptions.

While all these sectors are considered essential services, businesses are struggling to keep up with the load shedding schedules and keep their doors open.

“It was the wrong decision,” said Roodt. “There is a cost to everyone in the community, and this ruling meant schools were getting electricity and businesses were not. Nobody knows the costs of the exemption.”

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He said it was no surprise the respondents claimed they had not budgeted for these expenses. “[In] circumstances comparable to these, our courts have held that a non-provision of a budget item, is no excuse.

“Budgets or intended expenditure should be reprioritised as and when the need arises to remedy constitutional requirements.”

Different tariffs for different sectors

Roodt said the right way was to charge different tariffs to different sectors.

“Instead of giving schools electricity and having everyone pay the same tariffs, they should change the prices. A person willing to pay the most would be guaranteed electricity.”

Roodt said some would say it was unfair and argue schools and hospitals were more important than businesses.

“Those institutions that need power but couldn’t afford it should be subsidised,” he suggested.

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Roodt said there were less than 700 companies that covered two-thirds of all the total company tax.

“Companies like that could potentially eventually close due to the impact of load shedding,” he said.

Businesses affected by blackouts

Francois van den Berg, executive manager at Presley’s, said they were installing a big generator on the premises to ensure they kept the power on.

“Load shedding makes things very difficult because we need our outside lights on to keep our customs safe.”

He said they currently paid between R600 and R800 to keep the generator running a night. “Hiring a bigger generator costs anything from R8000 to R12 000 for a day,” Van den Berg said.

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Anri Ernst, who runs a printing company from her house, said load shedding was affecting her business and output.

“We have an inverter to run all the important things at home like the CCTV, which is a must in a country like South Africa, and our Wi-Fi and fridge. The machines I work with to print use too much power.”

Ernst said she could only print a certain number of prints at a time and has started printing according to the load shedding schedules.

“It’s frustrating,” she said. “Sometimes we get last-minute prints that we can’t do and have to refer the client.”

Rochelle Borman said, luckily, load shedding didn’t affect her gardening service because she used petrol lawnmowers. Currently, Borman spends between R4 700 to R5 000 on petrol.

“It was affecting our profit. A year ago, we would use less than R1 200 a month,” she said.

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Salon owner Nicole de Clerq said she couldn’t power her entire business with the generator she currently has. “We lose money because we can’t run the whole salon. The hairdressers can colour and cut hair, but that’s about it,” she said.

De Clerq said she used more than R600 weekly to keep the generator running.

“Now we started booking the clients when there was no load shedding, but it was difficult when the stages jumped to stage 6 suddenly,” she said.