Blackout burns business

It was a dark week for Ballito, and businesses and residents were unimpressed with the handling of the shaky electricity situation.
Electricity was shut off around 11.30am on Friday, accompanied by a sustained loss of internet connectivity, after Telkom workers apparently hit and damaged the main 33 000V cable that supplies Ballito.
Power and internet connectivity was restored late on Friday night and remained constant until 10.45am on Monday morning, when Ballito was plunged into darkness once again.
The Ballito central business district was quiet as most businesses and restaurants were forced to shut their doors on both days.
Ward councillor Colin Marsh explained that the cable, located near Zimbali, was broken by a Telkom employee operating heavy machinery.
“Since KwaDukuza does not have any electrical staff qualified to repair the cable the contract was put out to tender and Pinetown-based company Geeco was hired to do the job.
“The repair took five hours to complete but when the power was switched back on, the cable could not handle the reserve as there was more damage which was not picked up the first time around – hence the second blackout on Monday.”
Marsh said electricity had to be re-diverted and the repair redone.
Ballito Lifestyle Centre manager Mark Pearse said the power outage was a huge inconvenience to the centre and its stores, particularly because it was month end.
“February is traditionally a bad month and the stores struggled to make their monthly turnout because they lost almost a day of business. It is very frustrating that it happened again on Monday, resulting in a bigger loss.”
Pearse said the centre does have generators but it is difficult for every single store to have one.
The beauty industry took a hard knock with most salons closing their doors during the power failure.
Candice Davidson from Beauty Ballito had to cancel all her clients on Friday and Bridgette Allan, who runs a holistic healing practice, said massaging was close to impossible without a fan or air-conditioner.
“No music, no hot stone therapy, no computer… it adds up to a lot of money.”
Angel Bezuidenhout was busy paying contractors on Friday when the power cut, leaving most of them without money over the weekend.
“They then wanted the company to pay their bank costs for debit orders returned due to insufficient funds, ” she said.
Ryan Heenan said his accounting firm was thrown into panic on Friday, being financial year end and month end.
“I resorted to finding an internet café in Gateway to finish my provisional taxes, VAT, and pay the large number of salaries which we manage.”
Residents again complained that Kwa- Dukuza municipality had not gone to the trouble of providing them with updates through ward councillors. They were also upset that the emergency call centre was not helpful, with the phone ringing unanswered.
However, the Courier kept residents notified where possible using Facebook, Twitter and BBM platforms.
“It is a tragedy that our local business suffered the way it did. There should be red tape across any major cable to warn contractors and there are plans and diagrams marking cables and pipes out. I presume there is a mechanism in place for businesses to claim for losses suffered and suggest they contact the municipal manager,” said Marsh.
Electricity was restored in phases on Monday afternoon.
There was no response from the KwaDukuza municipality at the time of going to press.