SINCE the beginning of this year, businesses and consumers across the country have not been spared a single day without the planned power cuts.

Local businesses are feeling the effects of the ongoing electricity crisis as power outages wreak havoc.

This coupled with the decision by the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) to grant Eskom tariff increases of 18.65% and 12.74% over the next two years has left businesses facing an uncertain future.

Related article: Ongoing load-shedding a reality for the next 2 years

Northglen News spoke to the owners of Ellis Park Butchery and the Dialysis Life Support Centre about how the price hike will affect them and how they are coping with the rolling blackouts.

Amanda Govender, the director of the Dialysis Life Support Centre, said that Stages 4 and upwards impact patients’ schedules.

“Things can change very quickly in terms of load-shedding schedules, and as dialysis is a life-support treatment, it impacts my patients. We often have to reschedule patients for their treatments due to load-shedding. A typical session lasts up to four hours, and if there is a long-term outage due to a cable fault or substation fault, it could be detrimental. As a business owner and advocate for patients, it is heartbreaking because people have had to schedule their treatment days in order for them to still work.

“As a business, how do you win? These machines can run off generators, however, the ones I would need would be on an industrial scale to the point where, once again, I’m being impacted financially. Seeing the 18% price hike being granted is absolutely ridiculous. It has gotten to the point where things have become unaffordable, and the increase in my electricity bill will be a massive factor. This increase has the power to cripple businesses that are already paying so much for electricity. With that being said, and all the challenges we are currently facing as a country, we are committed to our patients’ health and will do whatever it takes to ensure patients are accommodated around these challenges. Their welfare still remains our top priority,” Govender said.

Also Read: Government working on energy relief package for small businesses

Her comments were echoed by Michael Moodie, one of the owners of Ellis Park Butchery.

“When you look at our electricity costs currently, I can’t imagine what an added 18% and then an additional 12% would look like. We’ve been very lucky so far in terms of long-term outages, but I do fear higher stages of load-shedding. We have a generator, which mitigates the two hours generally, however, when you see areas experiencing week-long outages, it could be catastrophic for meat products.

“We can’t afford to close down – we support 50 families alone. I do feel, as South Africans, we are resilient and that we should keep on making plans, but the higher cost of living, coupled with the higher cost of electricity, is extremely worrying. I’ve spoken to other friends who own businesses, and they are all concerned about how the ongoing power cuts will impact them in the long run,” he said.

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