A number of business owners in the Verulam CBD have been left enraged after being hit with major loses due to the ongoing electrical faults which recently resulted in them being forced to turn away customers and shut down shop for more than a week.
The ongoing electricity failures have pushed business owners to go to the extremes in order to keep their businesses afloat, which has affected their finances deeply. Verulam Business Forum Chairperson, Sagren Venkatas, told the Tongaat and Verulam Tabloid that in the recent weeks there have been continuous power outages, even after load shedding.
He said: “At times it goes on for hours. Most of the time we are out of power during the weekends or on month end. There is also the sporadic outages plaguing the Central Business District, that are costing us business.”
The Forum said they have contacted the Ward 106 councillor, Johnson Chetty, and have formally written to eThekwini Municipality, urging them to resolve the power failure in the area with the outmost urgency.
“While we have been impacted with the recent looting and floods, the community of Verulam is still counting their losses. With the recent power shedding more especially over the weekends and month end, the businesses are facing even deeper losses. We need to know what is the cause of the ongoing problem and if it are related to the water crisis or theft among other issues,” said Venkata.
He added that when the intermittent outages continued in Verulam CBD, the Forum together with Cllr Chetty met with the electrical unit to find a solution to the problem.
The owner of Gatti’s Ice Cream shop in the CBD area, Raffick Shaik, said his business has been severely affected by the electricity failures which have caused him huge losses.
“We have had outages at least five times since last year that lasted three to five days continuously. Our stock losses are huge, not to mention the movement of equipment to my house in order to mitigate our losses. As recent as last week, we had an outage lasting more than 24 hours and that meant moving deep freezers to my house and off site. There were about 12 deep freezers at that time. My two freezer room stocks had to be moved to an off site freezing facility at huge cost as well,” said Shaik.
Cllr Chetty said a new substation has been commissioned to mitigate the power cuts However, he lamented that a lot has yet to be done as the Verulam CBD is being affected drastically where many businesses are running a loss due to the extensive ongoing electricity failures.
He said over the years, lifestyles have changed as many communities that used to rely on paraffin, wood and coal for their families energy requirements, now totally dependent on electricity, which used to be a readily available commodity in abundance but not anymore.
“Due to urbanisation, population growth and millions of foreigners in the country, electricity has now become scarce. This is exacerbated by regular shutdowns of Eskom power plants and sometimes by criminal elements. The concern behind this is that aside from load-shedding and the subsequent trip-outs, there are regular electricity failures in Verulam especially in the CBD. As is common knowledge, the economic hub of any town is it’s CBD. Verulam has come to a standstill repeatedly over the last few months due to ongoing electricity failures which sometimes lasted in excess of 48 hours,” said Cllr Chetty.
He said businesses in the area had to throw away their perishables, hire generators and place their staff on short time due to these electricity failures.
“A business survives on profit and if the profitability is prejudiced then such business is doomed to fail which ultimately leads to job losses. The eThekwini municipality has failed the people of Verulam which is a historically old town. The infrastructure has not been upgraded or modernised in any way for decades. The lack of regular maintenance has led to breakers and cables failing regularly,” said Cllr Chetty
Cllr Chetty further added that the municipality has a serious shortage of resources, such as materials and labour, which has a direct impact on sustainability of supply. Ongoing meetings have been set up by the councillor and business forum for the municipality to assist in finding a solution to this major issue.
A comment from the eThekwini Municipality regarding the recent ongoing power outages were not forthcoming at the time of print.
