The latest round of load-shedding is having a devastating impact on communities in the Eastern Cape as the province’s residents scramble to keep their businesses open and manage their daily lives.
It is not only at the productive economy level that the crisis is being felt. For ordinary households, there are implications, in respect of food preparation and washing, but also the thousands of rands worth of damage being done to appliances and electronic equipment.
Insurance companies are being swamped with claims for microwave ovens, televisions and computers destroyed by power surges when the day’s load-shedding ends. There is no guarantee that consumers will have their losses made good, however.
In the past week alone, East London’s CJ Electronics has been asked to repair 10 high-end flatscreen televisions damaged by electricity surges. A new good quality flatscreen costs from R2,000 upwards.
“We’ve mainly been receiving televisions. It seems the new flatscreens can’t handle the spike if the voltage is too high or low. The insurance companies must be taking strain,” said CJ Electronics owner Chris Stubbs.
Thembela Mosele, of Mzantsi location outside Butterworth, said a power failure in their area left “lots of damage throughout the village”.
She said she wanted Eskom to replace her family’s fridge and pay for TV repairs too.
“At first Eskom claimed that they were investigating. At no stage has Eskom bothered to visit my village and assess the extent of damage.”
For Beacon Bay resident Vaughn Schröpfer, the load-shedding is costing thousands of rands. “Every time there’s load-shedding, it blows the motor on the garage door. It also destroys the batteries on my alarm system and CCTV cameras,” he said.
“I’ve also had a DVD player blow up.”
Schröpfer said the call-out and replacement fee for his alarm system battery was about R800, while for the CCTV cameras, the reinstallation and call-out fee could be as high as R1,300.
“This has happened a few times already.”
East London small business owner Stewart Peters hopes Eskom will be fined for the loss of income he’s suffered due to load-shedding. “My working hours have shrunk and I am not able to produce components on a continuing basis as I need power to run shot blasting machines, compressed air, and ovens. These parts take 16 hours to cure. We are a small business and cannot afford to purchase 3 phase generators to run our plant.”
While Eskom announced in a media statement that people would now be able to claim for damages incurred as a result of load-shedding through its call centre number (0860 037 566), insurance companies might have something different to say.
Senior assistant insurance ombudsman Peter Nkhuna, of the Ombudsman for Short-Term Insurance, warned that people should read the fine print of their insurance policies as cover differed from insurer to insurer.
“There were a lot of changes after the first years when load-shedding became common. Some insurers excluded it from cover altogether, while others included it at an additional premium, and yet others included it and probably built it into their standard cover and standard premium rating,” he said.
It remained the insurer’s prerogative on whether to pay for load-shedding-related claims.
Economists predict load-shedding will costing the country between R1bn and R2bn a day, and the forecast does not bode well.
NFB Asset Management’s managing director, Paul Marais, predicted that Eskom’s 2019 performance would prove the wisdom of getting his clients out of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and into cash. Load-shedding has accelerated the accuracy of his prediction.
“If government cannot find a solution for Eskom, and you can add SAA and Transnet to that, the country is in trouble.”
For some, however, load-shedding is proving a boon.
Carl Muller, of MullerKonsult, said Eskom was his top salesperson. His company installs photovoltaic (PV) “electricity from the sun” systems.
“Eskom’s load-shedding gets people who are considering installing their own electricity to make up their minds quicker,” he said. “The second positive is in stimulating interest, which leads to quotes, because a few weeks of load-shedding can ruin a small business.”
Enquiries and requests for quotes have already increased at East London solar geyser supplier Totally Solar, said Lindi Vermaak. “It has followed the same pattern as we experienced when Eskom cut the power before Christmas last year. Every bout of load-shedding gets the phone ringing, and sales follow.”..