Support needed in dark hours

The negative impact of load shedding on some manufacturers in George will be discussed with Eskom and George Municipality at a meeting on 18 February.

According to George Business

Chamber president Dennis Farrell, local manufacturing plants are under pressure because of load shedding. "They are at a point where they need more stability in their supply. Their electricity usage peaks when power is turned back on, leading to electricity costs escalating at an impossibly high rate. We have approached Eskom and the municipality to discuss the issue."

Amec Plastics owner Kobus Botha said they lost a few hundred thousand rand in December because of load shedding. "We manufacture plastic bags for the fruit export industry and our service has to be super dependable. We employ 100 people and I do not know how long we can keep up paying their wages during load shedding. The other problem is that after standing idle for two and a half hours, our machines take an hour to reheat to the correct temperature. They run at 200°C. We have 14 lines that must be started up individually."

To run the plant on a generator would require an investment of R1,8-million, which they cannot afford.

They would like to request the municipality to consider keeping their power turned on during load shedding to maintain machine temperature. He said some municipalities like Cape Town are very accommodating towards manufacturers, but they have been

If we do not get relief, we might consider moving our plant.