Business and jobs on line amid week long outage in Butterworth

Extension 7 in Butterworth has been without power for a week, and businesses, people and government departments are taking strain.

The mixed-use suburb houses the fire and ambulance service, several  industries and flats owned by the Eastern Cape Development Corporation.

Butterworth Fresh Produce Market manager Mervyn Wessels said the company’s  generator could not cope in the heat last week, and most of his frozen stock melted and rotted.

“My concern, aside from our financial losses at a time when we can ill afford it, is that the fire and ambulance services are not contactable on a landline.

“If there is an emergency people have to phone the police station, which relays a call to the fire or ambulance staff, or the police have to drive to them with a message.”

He said he had been phoning to report the fault to  Eskom since last Monday without any action.

The Dispatch has phoned Eskom’s Butterworth emergency number repeatedly since Friday, but the calls have gone unanswered.

Barry Beckermann, a director of Border Metal Industries  (BMI), said rumours regarding the causes of the blackout ranged from a blown substation to Mnquma being switched off for not paying their Eskom bills.

“Whatever the cause, when we opened on Wednesday after the year-end break we had to send our 60 staff members back home.”

Mnquma spokesperson Loyiso Mpalantshane said he had been unaware of the problem, but pointed out rumours of Eskom penalising the town because of unpaid bills were unlikely to be correct.

“If there was any substance to it, Eskom would have shut off the whole municipality, not just one area,” Mpalantshane  said.

BMI manager Chris Colin said most of the larger companies in Extension 7 industrial area had closed their doors, as had the vehicle testing and licencing department.

Beckermann said Eskom’s failure to notify the companies of the outage was costing industry a fortune through lost production.

“We cannot catch up on a lost week without incurring expensive overtime.

“What was really irritating was Eskom’s call centre staff.

“When I eventually got hold of them on Wednesday I was informed that the utility was aware of the problem but that there was no indication in the system of any action to fix it.

“What I was told was that there were other priorities.”

“If this is indicative of Eskom’s attitude to future problems, then profitable manufacturing and job creation in 2020 is going to be a struggle.

“We certainly could not keep going and 60 people will be without jobs.”