Small business owners mull leaving devastated EC town
Factory employers say operations are being crippled by its stuttering electricity supply and crumbling infrastructure
Business owners, battling to keep their companies afloat in the face of a twin assault from Eskom load-shedding and a separate power supply crisis in the fast-decaying town of Komani, are considering setting up shop elsewhere.
Lack of maintenance of crumbling electricity and other crucial infrastructure by the Enoch Mgijima municipality has become so worrying that several company owners who spoke to the Dispatch said they were seriously considering this drastic step.
The town — formerly known as Queenstown — has deteriorated alarmingly in recent years.
Matters came to a head recently when the whole area went off the electricity grid for about seven days.
As soon as power was restored in some areas, crippling load-shedding was also back in earnest.
Komani residents protested for two days last week, fed up with the intermittent electricity supply, as well as with having to contend with constant water outages, vandalised facilities, dangerous and damaging potholes and the town ’ s general decay.
Police fired rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse the protesters, some of whom said they wanted to bring down the municipality.
This week, Komani residents said their area Whatsapp groups had been filled with hourly complaints about the power supply.
In an interview with the Dispatch, Nico de Jager, CEO of Komani-based Crickley Dairy, town said ’Eskom’s s recent “load constant reduction” loadshedding, in tandem with the were huge problems.
Together, Crickley Dairy and Twizza Soft Drinks, both founded by Ken Clark, employ about 1,000 people in the area.
“Will the last person out please switch off the lights? It’s an old joke,” said Clark, who is also an independent councillor in the Enoch Mgijima municipality.
“But perhaps it doesn’t really apply to our town, because the way Eskom and the council are killing us, there won’t be any lights to switch off.
“Eskom’s load-shedding and crippling price increases have brought us to our knees, and municipal incompetence ... will be the final swing of the axe.”
He said manufacturing business could not fight against Eskom’s fluctuating power supply, coupled with the broken substations and stolen cables in the town itself.
“Forget for a moment our bigger businesses, and focus on the citizens.
“It is costing them a fortune in spoiled food, breakdowns of household appliances due to power surges and, obviously, lost jobs.”
The unreliable power supply is not the two companies’ only nightmare.
A portion of what used to be a tar road leading to the factories is now dirt, due to a lack of maintenance.
When the Dispatch asked De Jager what his employees did when there was load-shedding, he responded: “nothing”.
The company boss said: “On stage 6 load-shedding, we lose over 50% of production capacity. And you are not making money when you are running on a generator.
“We lose time not just in the load-shedding hours. Before we go into load-shedding, we need to switch off the equipment for about an hour.
“After load-shedding we need another hour to switch on equipment to ensure it is at the right temperature again.
“We pasteurise milk at 76°. It takes an hour to get the equipment up to that temperature. So I lose two hours of power over and above load-shedding.”
De Jager said although the Queendustria area had better power supply reliability than the Komani CBD, load-shedding was taking its toll on companies in the area.
“Last week, Komani town was off for seven days.
“What is being done by the municipality to the people of Komani is terrible.
“In December, we were one of the municipalities that got load reduction three times a day over and above load-shedding because Enoch Mgijima owes Eskom almost R1bn.
“All we want is what we pay for. We want everyone to live and work in Komani. “That’s all we want. “Our fleet is being destroyed by potholes and lack of maintenance of infrastructure.
“In the end we sit with people who do not enjoy living in Komani. Some say they would rather go somewhere else.
“All I am saying [to the municipality], is just give us a place to live.
“The worst thing is that the poorest of the poor are at the receiving end. They do not have money for generators.
“We as ratepayers pay our rates accounts every month. But where is this money going to?”
JJ Panelbeaters’ Jerome Jasson said he was ready to leave Komani.
“I told my wife I want to move all my stuff to Gqeberha. She begged me to stay because her parents live here.
“A lot of companies are already closing here due to the unreliability of power.”
Jasson said Komani had its own power source problems.
“Here we don’t worry about load-shedding; we worry about the reliability of power.
“The amount of money spend on generator fuel huge.
“Sadly, in a business like automotive repairs, you cannot run all your machines on a generator.
“Our customers get angry because we don’t finish the repairs on time.
“In the panelbeating industry, you need reliable electricity.
“We want Enoch Mgijima municipality to be dissolved because it is failing us.
“This municipality is not crumbling to its knees, it is already dead. There is no municipality in Komani.”
The owner of a local printing company, who asked not to be named, said: “My business is affected in many ways.
“It has been terrible. I am losing clients.
“I cannot afford [to pay] my staff. I also cannot afford a generator any more.
“Our problem in Komani is not just about load-shedding, it is beyond that.
“The possibility of getting back the power when the loadshedding is over is none.
“Even if there is no load-shedding, you find us having no power.”
This week, Enoch Mgijima employees started repairing cable faults in the Komani CBD as well as in Southbourne, Westbourne and Cathcart Road.
The municipality said it was embarking on stakeholder engagements to address service delivery issues.
Municipal spokesperson Lonwabo Kowa said three road projects were under way.
“The municipality has acknowledged to communities that there has been no proper maintenance in the past but the situation is being turned around,” Kowa said.
At the height of last week’s protests, the mayor, Madoda Papiyana, said the municipality owed Eskom R890m.
“We purchase electricity worth R30m monthly. We receive about R14m worth of electricity rates, but R16m is misused by illegal connections and businesses within the town, as the majority of businesspeople are stealing the electricity.
“This has a serious impact on service delivery.
“The other problem we have is the old electricity infrastructure, which is not up to supplying electricity to residents.”