Conservatively, 243 jobs have been lost as a direct result of load-shedding in Nelson Mandela Bay since the start of the year.
The job market is already tough and this leaves 243 families short on their household income — but worse if the worker was the sole provider.
The figure is conservative as it includes only the 105 businesses polled by the Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber’s second quarterly survey on the affect of load-shedding.
There were more than 55,000 informal and formal businesses in the Bay, with 150 considered to be medium to large businesses as they employed 200 or more people.
You can imagine that the job losses are way higher, leaving thousands of families in a financial pinch.
The businesses have no choice but to stay afloat as precious work hours are lost daily in the city.
Some have tried to turn the tide through renewable energy or generators, but this also comes at a great cost.
Chief Ngqoke’s Place owner Zonwabele Solwandle said despite investing R600,000 in renewable energy, his New Brighton business still faced high energy-related costs.
He must buy electricity to charge his solar batteries with winter in full swing.
According to the chamber’s more detailed report, businesses further indicated that continued load-shedding, particularly stages 4 to 6 and up between June to December, will have detrimental effects on their operations.
Other businesses have stressed that they might have to consider closing some plants or the overall business.
Almost 40% of the businesses indicated that they anticipated retrenching employees and further implementing short-time where necessary, according to the report.
On average, these businesses indicated that they anticipated retrenching 21% of their headcount per company.
But businesses are not alone in feeling the pinch, with the Eastern Cape government having spent R1.7m fixing damaged infrastructure since 2018.
Load-shedding also affects pump stations in the province’s municipalities.
Power surges damage motors, forcing municipalities to cough up the money to fix the equipment.
There are hardly any winners when dealing with load-shedding and the situation is likely to become worse.
Solwandle, like all living in SA, does not deserve this.
HeraldLIVE