The DA in the Northern Cape urges provincial government to implement measures protecting SMMEs from loadshedding and cost of living increases.

Some businesses had to dig deep to install alternative sources of energy, which does not come cheap. The Windpomp Restaurant in Brandvlei and the Mo24 Hair & Beauty Salon in Kathu are among the entrepreneurs who experience how increasing prices just to cover additional fuel costs can drive away clients, further reducing revenue for cash-strapped companies. Plans to expand the salon into a lifestyle centre are now on hold and the restaurant is considering selling.

Even with alternative energy supply, limited capacity and depleted batteries at cellular towers creates connectivity challenges which are insurmountable for a company competing in a modern economy. An online training company based in the Kalahari, for example, reports that it has no WiFi signal for the duration of loadshedding. An alternative WiFi source is not affordable.

To cut costs, general wholesalers based in the Karoo now do not fill vacancies when staff leave their employment. This creates a chain reaction of unemployment and socio-economic decay in rural economies. Subsequent limitations in client service also makes it difficult for shops to thrive, as they lose business from dissatisfied customers.

Frequent changes in loadshedding stages makes it difficult for SMMEs to plan properly. The Doggie's Paradise grooming parlor in Kimberley cannot afford an alternative energy supply and has to work around loadshedding stages, which often change at short notice. This is also a particular challenge for small-scale bakers, from Kimberley to Namakwa, who use their home kitchens and suffer immense stock losses when substations are switched on earlier or later than expected.

The Kimberley-based Scorp Security also reports increased levels of cable theft and housebreaking during loadshedding, which makes it difficult to run a profitable business from home.

For the past nine months, the DA in the province has been calling on the Premier to mitigate the impact of loadshedding on the provincial economy. We have called on municipalities that are facing a water crisis to apply for loadshedding exemptions. A provincial delegation, including the Provincial Leader, Harold McGluwa, is also attending the DA’s “Power to the People” march to Luthuli House in Johannesburg tomorrow, in protest of Stage 6 loadshedding and electricity tariffs. We are further running a countrywide petition: https://www.notoincreases.co.za/

Support the DA’s initiatives and let us save SMMEs, livelihoods and lives together.

 

Issued by Fawzia Rhoda, MPL - DA Northern Cape Provincial Spokesperson on Finance