The impact of the load shedding imposed on the country by South Africa’s ailing power utility Eskom is being felt in the corporate buildings and in business districts, all the way down to grassroots businesses.
This is the case for Philani Zwane who runs his small business, Philani Pool Services in the suburbs of Johannesburg.
Zwane drives to customers’ homes to clean and maintain their pools.
For the past two weeks, however, Zwane has faced many challenges and escalating fuel costs because of the unreliable energy supply in the country that all citizens have had to contend with.
“The load shedding has caused chaos for my business. I need to run my customer’s pool pumps to make sure I deliver the best service I can for my clients, because there are many things that need to be done when cleaning a pool, such as vacuuming, backwashing and filtering the chemicals added to keep pools sparkling and blue.”
He says when he arrived at many of his clients’ homes recently, he was only able to complete half the job required because there is always load shedding.
“I then go back later or schedule a time to complete the maintenance work needed, but when I arrive I am told that there is still no power because they are being load shedded again, a transformer has tripped or cable theft has left them without power,” Zwane told Business Report.
“I am seeing that I am using more fuel now, as I am having to travel extra and add more trips to my work schedule because the energy supply to my customers is so unreliable, due to Eskom.”
Zwane says usually at this time of year, business is booming as the temperatures in the country begin to rise, but he has not been able to enjoy the benefits of the change of season due to the higher input costs.
“I run my business full time and it is my bread and butter. Eskom needs to end load shedding so I may continue to run my business and make my customers happy.”
BUSINESS REPORT