Power cuts ‘will impact on tourists’

IT COULD be Christmas by candlelight for South Africa and tourists this festive season, as Eskom announced lengthy rolling blackouts across the country.

Eskom confirmed that load shedding was expected in the coming months, possibly until March.

Stage 2 load shedding began across the city yesterday.

Janine Myburgh, president of the Cape Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said load shedding had been implemented at the most unfortunate time.

Tourists are expected to come back during this period given the change in the recent drought.

“This can have a detrimental effect on the economy and hopefully it is just of a short-term nature.”

As thousands of young people from upcountry descend on the city’s coastal stretches for the annual Matric Rage festival, which kicks off today, the tourist industry has been urged to create contingency plans to avoid significant risk to the tourism and hospitality sectors.

While residents scramble to make arrangements to manage the two-hour power cuts, which could even darken Christmas Day as well, tourism and hospitality leaders worried about the negative impact load shedding would have on the city, which expects to host hundreds of thousands of holidaymakers.

Economist Dawie Roodt stated that load shedding “will certainly have an impact on tourists” for the festive season, but because it was the time of year when industry shut down, the impact nationally would be lessened.

“If we hadn’t had problems with Eskom over the last 10 years, South Africa’s economy would be 10% bigger at least which translates into one million jobs, it could be significantly more.

“This government has cost South Africa very dearly. But Eskom has new management in place so they are trying to deal with this,” said Roodt.