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Power cuts cripple Glen Hills businesses

The ward councillor for the area says ageing infrastructure, with no plans for upgrades, is to blame for the frequent power outages.

IT’S been two years since a Glen Hills businessman decided to document each time a power outage occurred in the area.

What prompted Kevin Norris’s data collection was that electricity cuts, other than load-shedding which was still happening at the time, had been occurring too often, leaving him and other businesses in the area running at a huge loss.

He has recorded 24 power outages in 24 months which is crippling business in the area.

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The power outage last week was no different, leaving businesses in the area in a deficit of hundreds of thousands of rands. It lasted over 30 hours, starting on Monday at 10:05 and ending the next day at 17:30. It also brought with it telecommunications challenges once repairs were complete.

Norris, owner of Durban North Action Sports in Rinaldo Road, told Northglen News that he loses about R15 000 a day each time there’s a power cut for a few hours.

“My business relies mainly on the after work trade as it’s a sporting facility. Without lights cricket, netball and soccer can’t happen. These teams also play league games which they couldn’t play due to the power outage.

“When the electricity eventually came back on, the internet was down so we couldn’t record scores digitally as we usually do. These scores had to be written down and then put into the system once the internet was up and running,” he said.

Desiree Naicker, the manager of Star Stationers and Printers, said the business lost approximately R100 000 during the recent power outage.

“Businesses can’t afford to lose money, especially not in this economy. Even getting a generator is not an option because it would cost too much to run,” he said.

“Obviously something has to be done to upgrade infrastructure because we cannot afford to lose out on business. It affects our bottom line and we have to dig into profits,” he added.

Manager of Free Divers, Wayne Breedt, said the power outage affected their production drastically.

“We manufacture diving equipment to supply to stores. There’s a deadline to each order and due to the power outage, we couldn’t meet many deadlines. This happens often and it doesn’t leave a good impression on our business. We can’t run a generator due to the heavy machinery,” he said.

Breedt added that although they didn’t physically lose any money during the outage, it did inconvenience them as staff were paid and no work could be done and they then had to work overtime to push work out.

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“Time is money in business so yes, we did lose in that sense. Over the years we also had to change the motors on some of our machines. That was an added cost which we should not have to incur. The machines, lights and computers run off a small generator,” he said.

He said that telecommunication was also affected so customers battled to contact them.

“We need the City to do something because it is killing business,” said Breedt.

Desiree Naicker, the manager of Star Stationers and Printers, also reported that massive print orders could not be fulfilled due to the power outage.

“We had to close our doors and send staff home resulting in a R100 000 loss. We lost so much business by having no choice but to turn away customers, and now we’re trying to play catch up,” said Naicker.

“The constant power outages also affect our machinery which we’ve had to repair in the past. Business is being crippled and we can’t go on like this,” she added.

Resident Caylin Gradidge said having children aged 11, 3 and 1 was challenging for her without any electricity for over 30 hours.

“It was such an inconvenience as my children asked for food and not all of us are lucky enough to have a gas stove, generator or extra money for take-aways,” she said.

“Every week it’s something or the other – no water or no electricity – it’s absolute nonsense. There is no maintenance being done to any infrastructure which is why all of this is happening, so what do we as rate and tax payers actually pay for?” she asked.

PR councillor for Ward 110, Ritesh Singh, said the power failure was due to a massive cable fault that required many hours to repair.

“There was an MV cable fault at Island Circle which affected Ward 110, Ward 36 and a section on Ward 35. Eighteen substations were down. When the initial repair was complete and the power was turned back on, an overload in the system caused it to trip. Technicians worked tirelessly throughout the night. The reason for these constant power outages is mass expansion of the area but no upgrade to infrastructure. Infrastructure has not been upgraded in 30 years,” he said.

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Candyce Krishna

I am Candyce Pillay – fun, energetic and always positive. Community journalism has been a part of my life for 18 years – something I always say with pride when I am asked. As a journalist, I am forever the favourer of the underdog. When I am not penning the latest human interest piece, crime or municipal bit, and occasionally a sports update, you can find me in the place I love most – at home with my beautiful family – cooking up a storm, soaking up the sun with a gin and tonic in hand or binge-watching a good series or documentary.

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