The sudden jump between the different load shedding stages are making it difficult for businesses to plan ahead, and this is undermining their productivity, says the Cape Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

“We have had two days where stage one blackouts suddenly became stage two blackouts,” said Ms Janine Myburgh, President of the Chamber. “We have also had cases where scheduled load shedding was not applied.”

She said while no one was pleased to see the lights go out, it would be better if the load shedding was kept at stage two for a full day so that power outages would be more predictable and commerce and industry could plan to work round them. This would also give Eskom more time for essential maintenance work.

“In a simple office situation you might know that your computers are going to be down for a two-hour period in the morning so you could schedule your staff and other meetings for this down-time. In a workshop or a factory this is even more important. A predictable schedule could put employers in a position to change working hours or shifts, introduce an early-closing day or move lunch-breaks into the dead time.”

She said that there were difficult years ahead for both business and consumers, but there was a willingness to work with the authorities to reduce the impact of load-shedding. “If we have load-shedding schedules that are strictly applied we can work around them and we can all do our bit to keep the economy going.”

Issued by The Cape Chamber of Commerce and Industry