By Angelique Alberts
Residents and businesses are in a state of preparing for the 14 hour a day load shedding issued by Eskom. The local government of Makana was given till the 4th of April 2019 to pay the debt of 84 million rand before Eskom goes forth with the power cuts. Many businesses have to prepare and adjust to this big change being made and how they can run their businesses while continuing to bring in customers and make money.
While many local Makhanda businesses have already had a plan in place, other businesses are in a state of worry on how they will cope without generators. Christenei Kleu, an employee of the optical shop Specsavers, said that they are still waiting to hear if they can get generators. Their boss had to go to the head office to find out if they can have generators to keep business going as usual, because without electricity their computers do not work at all. “Many of the new shops here like Specsavers, Crazy Store and Mugg and Bean do not have generators, we are all waiting to hear if we can have generators” she stated.
Nicolette Bowers, the manager at the Gold Rush casino says that it is business as usual for Gold Rush as they have a generator that keeps business going. Having load shedding also brings in more customers. However with the pros there are cons that Gold Rush faces as well Miss Bowers states “As good as the extra business is, it is costing me a fortune on diesel to keep the generator running, and in May the price for diesel is going up again, there is really no balance, even with more customers coming in.”
While some businesses are finding it costly to keep business progressing as usual, other businesses such as the Revelations Café are not affected at all by the load shedding crisis that is soon to happen. For the revelations Café it is like any other day even with a 14 hour a day load shedding approaching. Revelations Café share the generator with Makhanda’s biggest supermarket, Pick n Pay. This way, there are no expensive financial costs on a generator, and business is improved with the amount of customers that go to Revelations Café due to load shedding.
Other businesses have found ways to work around the extensive load shedding hours that is set to happen. Bookstore; Bargain Books manager Wilna Coetzee says that they have a plan set in place that will not interfere with how business runs on a day to day basis. To attract more business, there will be posters plastered all over the shop’s window to indicate that all books will be 10% off. The bookstore also has a functioning Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) device that will keep the computers running for a while after the power is off.
Another business that has completely become innovative with working around the load shedding is local restaurant Saints Bistro, this restaurant has a set plan in place that will not only bring in business but be environmentally friendly as well. With having small generators in place that will continue to run the system. The restaurant has also entirely introduced a ‘load shedding menu’ that provides various options that people can choose from even during load shedding. Manager Lolly Connor explains “The load shedding menu has items on it that does not use an oven or a fryer but it still has dishes on there that everyone can be happy with, which has brought our menu to a 75% load shedding friendly menu. We can serve people here during load shedding as everything will be cooked in a gas burner”. She also says that this plan has not been a strain financially but instead aided the business as a whole.
With this 14 hour a day load shedding that has been put into place, many businesses are worried about the future. For some there will be no effect on business, for others it is costly, while it has presented a new opportunity for some to include load shedding into how they increase business. It presents concern for how business will run daily with such an extensive amount of hours being lost due to having no power.
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