Outages hit businesses hard

Eastern Cape businesses and consumers are losing large amounts of money as Eskom’s power supply spirals out of control.

Yesterday’s unplanned “incident” at Majuba power station disrupted life across the province and country.

However, since the crisis broke on Thursday and escalated to full-blown Stage 3 disaster – three cuts per area of two or more hours long – on Saturday, businesses have lost food in ovens, and electrical appliances are blowing during sudden and extreme switch-on power surges.

Buffalo City Metro (BCM) spokesman Keith Ngesi said yesterday’s planned schedules had been overtaken by Eskom calling at any time to order blackouts.

Ngesi said Eskom was sending text messages to BCM giving electricians as little as 20 minutes to switch off areas.

City electrical officials were doing their best to cut areas on an equitable basis.

Ngesi urged residents to follow official notices on a Facebook page (EL, MDT & KWT Loadshedding) and to tune in to local radio stations.

In Mthatha, King Sabata Dalindyebo (KSD) municipal spokesman Sonwabo Mampoza said of their Stage 3 shedding on the weekend: “KSD municipality does not have control over the situation and our full cooperation is imperative as we are all working together to avoid a national blackout.”

Border-Kei Chamber of Business director, Les Holbrook, said Eskom seemed “to be in a spiral”.

“We are very, very concerned. Eskom just does not seem to be getting on top of its issues with fuel, coal, water and maintenance.”

Eskom CEO Tshediso Matona told the media yesterday that a series of calamities struck last week, which included plants running out of water, coal, and diesel. At one point, all the major fuel suppliers did not have diesel, but this was also linked to a problem with the “alignment of the budget”, he said.

He promised that with industry winding down on December 16, power supply would stabilise.

Mercedes-Benz SA CEO Arno van der Merwe said the plant was working closely “with the authorities to manage the risks associated with the issued loadshedding schedules”.

“Up to now this has been well co-ordinated,” he said.

“However, in the mid to long-term, stabilisation of the energy situation is critical to the ongoing development of the economy.”

Nigel Connellan, managing director of Götz von Westernhagen’s group of 13 Spar stores said his group and other retailers were losing thousands of rands.

Some stores were burning R10000 in diesel daily and tens of thousands of rands worth of food was wasted. “Each time it comes back on, it spikes way higher than usual and blows our computers, CCTV, and television sets. A lot of other electrical equipment is damaged.” He said: “We lost a huge amount of money. Can we claim it back from BCM?”

Charles Crawley, owner of Appliance Service Centre said he had noticed a sudden increase in burned out washing machines, fridges, hair dryers, stoves, and computers.

He urged residents to switch off plugs or mains before loadshedding.

“I turn off my power at the board half an hour ,” he said.

Dave Thomas at Ramas urged consumers to buy surge protection plugs.

Eskom’s Eastern Cape spokeswoman Ntombekaya Mafumbatha said they had no control over how BCM organised their loadshedding, but Eskom customers could check their website for a reliable schedule or walk in to a customer contact centre.

DA BCM caucus chairman Lance Weyer said he was struggling to get the BCM loadshedding schedule which, unlike other municipalities, was not on the city’s official website.

“Once again, they are failing dismally when it comes to communication.”

On the Sunshine Coast, Ndlambe municipality spokeswoman Nwabisa Nobebe said loadshedding had left some areas without water after electrical pumps were unable to fill supply dams for Port Alfred and Bathurst.