Load-shedding affects livelihood of small businesses in Mbombela

The Black Entrepreneurs Alliance (BEA) founder and chief executive, Refilwe Monageng, has called on the government to assist small businesses in Mbombela as he warned that Eskom’s recent regime of stage 4 and 6 load-shedding was placing the financial viability of the country’s thousands of small businesses, and jobs, in jeopardy.

Monageng said increased overhead costs and lost business hours were also hitting the bottom line.

“Unlike large corporates and medium-sized firms, most small businesses do not have sufficient savings to explore alternative energy sources, such as solar power, nor the funds to invest in powerful diesel-run generators to keep the lights on and their doors open during long periods of load-shedding,” he said.

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Monageng said small township businesses that rely on walk-in trade, such as hair salons, printing shops and locksmiths to taverns and superettes, are facing a crisis due to the rolling blackouts. Small businesses are also not able to complete their paperwork for tenders, customer quotes and invoices on time due to the load-shedding, which led to a further loss in trade for owners.

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“Most modern businesses rely on electricity for technology, lighting and machinery and owners simply cannot afford to keep paying their staff to be at work when services cannot be rendered to customers for several hours every day. Some small businesses are choosing to simply close their doors during load-shedding to avoid higher costs, but this, too, obviously leads to a massive loss in trade.”We urge the government to throw a lifeline to small businesses during the 2022 tax year and to reduce our taxes or at least provide us with some sort of reprieve or rebate for the hours of lost trade during load-shedding,” Monageng said.