Power price hike leaves start-up eateries in NW fearing the worst
Small businesses in North West have lamented the impact of the energy crisis on operations and their ability to create jobs.
On Thursday, national energy regulator Nersa granted Eskom an 18.65% tariff hike after the struggling power utility had applied for a 32% increase.
Pontsho Senne is the executive chef and co-founder of Tatso at Mesora in Phokeng, near Rustenburg, and she says they’ve been forced to fork out money to mitigate the adverse impact of stage 6 power cuts. On top of this, she says the looming price increase is bound to eat away at their bottom line.
The hospitality sector, which was hardest hit by the Covid-19 pandemic, is being pounded from all sides just as they begin to recover from the effects of lockdown.
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And, with the agricultural sector also reeling from the instability of the grid, food prices are also expected to increase, putting a further dent in the profits of restauranteurs like Senne.
She says with the rolling power cuts now ramped up to stage 6 “indefinitely” they have to find ways to supplement their current alternative energy sources.
“We’ve had to install inverters and batteries so that we can keep the lights on, and we can serve our customers. We have a system that was able carry us through the earlier stages of load shedding where we would be off for two hours at a time. Now, the current system that we have installed is not getting us through because we are now on stage 6 where we are off for longer periods and our battery power goes off. That means that now we have to spend more money to upgrade that system, but as well we have to spend more money playing for electricity that we actually don’t have,” says Senne.
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Businesses across the country fear they may be forced to shut their doors over rising overheads that are driven by the country's energy crisis.
The manager of a four-month-old pub in Hartbeespoort says he fears they may be forced to shut their doors due to rising overheads driven by the unstable power supply.
Rhulani Marivate, who manages the newly established eatery Area 51 in the tourist town, described the impending energy price hike as “daylight robbery”.
“How do I pay for something that I don’t get? Because if I must generate electricity, I am generating from diesel. I get nothing from Eskom. My costs increase and if they keep increasing a start-up business like mine might have to close shop; which is unfair.”
Following several months of fuel price hikes, consumers got some reprieve when the price of diesel dropped by R2,70 this month. But this has had little benefit for businesses using generators under higher stages of load shedding.
Marivate says his establishment forks out nearly R1,800 for each of his two generators to keep the lights on for two weeks.
