Small businesses on verge of collapse

Escom’s chaos is having a myriad of horrible effects in Mthatha and surrounds.

Many businesses are at a standstill and some business people spoke of how they were going to pay their rent and staff.

Food was going off in B&B fridges, and generators are so expensive to run that a business hiring out generators was losing thousands a day as customers returned them. They were also returning the generators because business had slowed to a halt.

OR Tambo district municipal bosses are struggling to keep water pumps working.

District municipal spokesperson Ayongezwa Lungisa told the Daily Dispatch on Wednesday that load-shedding was wreaking havoc in their endeavour to distribute clean water to the residents of Mthatha and surrounds.

Mthatha CBD, suburbs of Fort Gale and Myezo Park as well as Ikhwezi and Mbuqe Extension were hit hard by water shortages last week.

“Our pumps use electricity and now we have to wait four hours to pump water which happens every day,” he said.

“It disrupts water distribution and unfortunately many people become impatient with waiting.”

OR Tambo District Chamber of Business president Vuyisile Ntlabati said the outages were “very painful” for businesses.

He said small businesses were feeling the pinch with some on the verge of closing down. They could not keep up with paying rent as they were not making any profit. “Retail is hardest hit with some even approaching us as the chamber to find out how are we fighting Eskom.”

Ntlabati said they were not even sure how they were going to pay salaries. Those using generators were complaining about the exorbitant costs of buying fuel.

Ntlabati estimated that since the start of stage 4 load-shedding, some businesses were spending at least R500 a day on fuel. “It's a painful situation and it’s killing us as business people,” he added.

Mthatha Ratepayers and Residents Association councillor Booi Malghas said the sad part about the crisis was that people were still in the dark about why Eskom had resorted to loadshedding in the first place.

“I don't think we know the truth but we are left to bear the consequences,” he said.

He [Ntlabati] said small businesses were feeling the pinch