At his wit’s end with delayed load-shedding, a Gqeberha businessman said he would have shot himself this week if he had a gun in hand after one of his machines was damaged when the power went off late.
His doctor has ordered him to see a psychiatrist as the toll of load-shedding has left him and his company struggling.
“I am losing workers because I am losing work.
“I am losing customers because I am losing my machinery,” the man, who did not want to be named, said.
His biggest gripe is that the municipality is unable to stick to the load-shedding schedule.
“We turned off the machine 10 minutes before load-shedding to keep it safe,” he said.
But, 15 minutes later, the electricity was still on.
“We assumed we were skipped and turned the machine on. Then load-shedding hit.”
He urged the municipality to send officials to witness what it was like on factory floors.
“We provide work for other people. We contribute to the economy but I can’t if I am not producing.
“We know there is load-shedding, but just stick to the schedule.”
His struggles come as a survey on the effect of load-shedding on Bay businesses shows that one in five companies have cut jobs, with 90% halting investment and expansion plans.
The survey of 70 businesses, split between large, medium and small enterprises, was conducted by the Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber.
The survey started at the beginning of February and ended on Thursday.
It showed that load-shedding had a detrimental effect on investment and jobs in the metro.
Seventy-five percent of the surveyed businesses had been forced to implement short-time and 18% reported job cuts totalling 149 in recent months.
More than a third had considered restructuring or relocating unless there was a significant improvement in the energy crisis.
The chamber has consequently called for urgent implementation of strategies to lessen the effects of the power cuts.
VWSA has also had to implement short-time and cut salaries as part of a national bargaining forum agreement.
VWSA spokesperson Andile Dlamini said the 24-hour voluntary load-shedding that allowed it to go off for one day in an eight-day cycle had helped with production.
“From stage 5 upward, there’s no production at all because we can’t operate the plant on a generator — it requires full energy supply from the municipality to ensure uninterrupted production.”
Dlamini said the company had fortunately not had to shed any jobs.
The owner of an automation specialist company said that as an international supplier of equipment for export, load-shedding was wreaking havoc on the business, resulting in it not meeting critical milestones for major original equipment manufacturer projects.
“Load-shedding not only affects our ability to manufacture at the expected international standard timing but also affects the potential of future international business.”
He said OEMs had options all over the world and with no positive solution in sight, a more serious effect on the entire manufacturing industry was expected.
AE Manufacturing’s Andrio Els said his company was struggling to complete projects.
“We are not on short-time but lose half a day of work,” he said.
“You could plan for night shifts but you are also going to go off. We are really struggling.”
The metro’s electricity and energy political head, Lance Grootboom, said load-shedding had a debilitating effect on big industries and small businesses alike.
“The directorate has taken great strides to create a conducive environment for industry insofar as the impact of load-shedding is concerned, by providing protection for the industry during stages 1 to 4 and at stage 5 instituted by a 24-hour voluntary load-shedding schedule for qualifying industries to help have staffing and production certainty.
“We have to make great strides to protect jobs, grow the economy, and comply with our load-shedding demand from Eskom while balancing that with our need for electricity and energy security.”
According to the survey, more than 80% of businesses reported negative effects on production due to load-shedding, and just more than half said backlogs and delivery delays due to production downtime hampered their ability to meet export orders or participate in export-orientated supply chains.
Business chamber CEO Denise van Huyssteen said the results of the survey were concerning for the Bay’s already strained and highly manufacturing-dependent economy.
She said 91% of the businesses surveyed had put plans for future investment and expansion on hold, and 36% were considering relocating out of the metro or leaving SA entirely.
This, she said, did not bode well for the sustainability of the economy and future job creation.
Van Huyssteen said the survey had shown that a diverse set of solutions to lessen the effect of load-shedding on business was needed, due to the differing needs and resources of different types and sizes of businesses.
“There is no one-size-fits-all solution and we need to be urgently exploring all options.”
She said the municipality’s agreement to a voluntary 24-hour load-shedding schedule for manufacturers which met the required criteria had helped ease some of the effects of frequent stop-starts for those companies.
“We are refining this with the municipality and the companies involved, and working to bring more on board where possible,” she said.
“Load curtailment is another solution when load-shedding gets beyond stage 4, whereby manufacturers who have demand management systems cut their demand, enabling production to continue uninterrupted, albeit at lower levels.
“We also need to find more alternatives for smaller manufacturers that don’t have the type of electrical connections that allow for demand management and monitoring.”
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