Businesses suffer losses due to power and water outages
Northdale businesses have been struggling to trade due to unpredictable power outages and frequent water cuts in the area.
The latest power outage started at midday on Sunday as a result of a cable fault which had to be repaired.
A business owner who had to close her business from Monday calculated the cost of the stock that spoilt.
“In total we have had a 30 hour power outage which has resulted in a R35 000 loss. All my icecreams have melted and I’ve had to turn away customers due to the fact that we simply don’t have ice cream to sell,” said Kayla Ramluggan, owner of The Dessert Bar in Lahore Road.
She said that it is very disheartening to have to lose so much money in such a short space of time.
She added that in addition to the power outages, the water supply was on and off because of burst pipes.
Ramluggan said that she had to buy a second hand generator which cost her R9000 and is now no longer in use because it needs a new part which is too expensive to purchase right now.
“We have a generator just lying there because we couldn’t afford a brand new one. We are a business that just started out, so buying a brand new generator is out of the question. What baffles me is that we have had 30 hours without electricity, but the bill is the same every month. The municipality wants you to pay on time but they fail to deliver every time,” said Ramluggan.
Ramluggan said there are no street lights in Lahore Road which negatively affects her business in the late afternoons and at night.
“There are no street lights here on our road. In the evenings it’s very dark and vagrants flock to sleep in the open field. The very same space is used as the parking area for our customers. Customers are deterred by the vagrants and the darkness for fear of their safety,” said Ramluggan.
The owner of KIT Productions, Kerooshan Pather, said that the power outage started days ago when the municipality said the cause was cables and a faulty box.
RR“I have ice cream that melted because of the power outages and I don’t have a generator. When the ice cream melts it causes my freezers to have complications which are costly to fix. We buy stock in advance and the unfortunate part of it all is that we won’t even get money back for it because there are no refunds or exchanges,” said Pather.
Pather said that it’s unfortunate that he will not see the profits of his purchase as he cannot sell the ice-cream that melted, at least not at the full price.
Yadhir Singh, owner of Capital Ice-cream in Tulshi Road said that electricity outages have negatively impacted on sales as consumers are wary about purchasing ice-cream which is a fragile product.
“Customers are sceptical to purchase large quantities as load shedding has impacted on items melting or going off in their freezers. The business has been affected by load shedding, power outages and the production of ice-cream. The knock-on effect of load shedding in the country has reduced disposable income due to business introducing short time which has affected sales of ice cream,” said Singh.
DA Ward 31 councillor Rooksana Ahmed, said that the water and electricity supply was restored on Monday evening.
“The infrastructure has not been maintained for years and the municipality is supposed to set aside 8% of their total budget for upgrades and replacements. However, this has not happened for many years. Sometimes it's been 2% and other times it’s 0%. This has led to where we are now. We must remember that many areas are over 60 years old and repairing and joint and patching daily is not going to solve the problems,” said Ahmed.
Ahmed said that what the community needs is a huge injection of funds to do total replacement of water infrastructure in order to avoid the daily burst pipes.
"We have schools, hospitals, clinics, seniors and the sick. It's frustrating for our residents that they never know from morning to afternoon whether it's a water or electricity outage. The cost factor also affects residents. The questions raised daily are : We pay month after month. Where is the money?
“Why is it we don't get service delivery? The municipality must apply Batho Pele principles and be honest regarding the status of the cash flow, the status of materials and stores, the status of vacancies, the status of vehicles and those waiting for repairs. Unless we have a municipality that is prepared to realise that their duty is to be transparent, we will have residents venting anger towards the municipality,” said Ahmed.