Businesses and residents alike took the brunt of Lekwa’s rotational load shedding and Eskom’s introduction of load shedding the past week.
There was no hope that the parties could come to an agreement for leniency in the workplace and households.
The comments from three businessmen differed slightly as regards the financial implications.
Mr Nick Iacovou from Standerton Superspar said they invested a lot of money in a generator.
“From an expense point of view, the cost was astronomical,” Mr Iacovou added.
Mr Ferdie Weyers, just opposite at Maximed Pharmacies in Princess Street, gave an estimate of nearly R20 000 more in petrol expenditure for the generator per month.
Another drawback is that the pharmacy can not go full throttle in times of load shedding.
Alternative sources of energy furthermore add insult to injury.
“It would cost at least R2-million to be able to go off the grid,” Mr Weyers said.
Mr Fanie Potgieter from the established Mida and Mica in Kerk Street voiced the problems succinctly, referring to Covid-19 regulations.
“Times are uncertain and our model is based on certain input costs,” Mr Potgieter said.
Their model has been operational for the past 50 years, taking into account turnover and operating costs.
He differentiated between a stand-by generator and prime generator in businesses with the latter having a bigger capacity.
“Very few businesses in town have a prime generator,” he also said.
The company will spend R500 000 this coming week to upgrade their generators.
Apart from having generators, PCs and the server have to be protected as well, adding R200 000.
“I can stomach all the other variables, but my customer-base is small businesses,” he concluded.
He offered a possible solution where the community unites as one in their dissatisfaction with the Lekwa Municipality.
Lekwa Ratepayers Association has established a Facebook-page and the Standerton Advertiser was granted permission to access it on Saturday, 18 July.
According to a post on the legal situation, their legal team has served the municipality with three letters, all pertaining to lack of service delivery.
“We have also taken the necessary steps and have engaged our legal council to interdict Lekwa Shedding, which has devastated our community with double load shedding,” it read.
A request was made for further contributions to this cause.
The post on environment said that with the help of Sahara Sand, Lesedi Primary School was tackled where lack of waste removal among other things impacts negatively on learners. Ratepayers thanked every volunteer as well as Sahara Sand.
