Durban - Load shedding during peak times is having a severe impact on trade at the Durban Fresh Produce Market in Clairwood. Market agents who spoke to The Mercury said that over the past two days they had lost hundreds of thousands of rand.
This comes as the Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry said the two- to four-hour loss of productive time was crippling for most small businesses in both the formal and informal sectors of the city.
The agents said the scheduled power cuts happened between 6am and 8am and they were unable to work because the market’s generators did not have diesel. They said that it was the city’s responsibility to supply diesel for the generators.
One of the business agents, who asked not to be named for fear of reprisals, said their peak business hours were between 4am and 8am.
“Over the past two days, there was no electricity from 6am to 8am. That is our busiest time as we have a lot of customers coming from retailers and small businesses to buy stock. For the diesel not to be supplied, that is just wrong.
“Everyone knows that there is load shedding. This is having a huge effect on our sales,” said the agent.
He estimated that he lost approximately R100 000 during the two-hour power cuts as he made close to R400000 per day.
“It’s money that I cannot gain back. I have workers to pay, licence fees, rent to the city and other expenses. We really don’t need such slackness from the market management - it’s killing us,” he said.
Another business agent said that he had formal and informal buyers from the South Coast who arrived at 6am but had to wait for the power to be restored.
“I just wish that the municipality would understand that this is killing our business. Our buyers have people waiting for stock to come. A delay here is a delay to the whole market.
“The lights, coolers, computers and printing matchings don’t work during load shedding. We are competing with the Pietermaritzburg Market and that is where our buyers will go now,” he said.
The municipality said it was the responsibility of the City Fleet department to supply diesel, but disputed that there had been no diesel for two consecutive days. Municipal spokesperson Msawakhe Mayisela said that the downtime at the market was less than an hour of the market’s six-hour trading time.
Mayisela said that one generator at the market had malfunctioned, and electricity supply for the affected areas that were dependent on the malfunctioning generator had been rerouted to a functional one.
“The rapid consumption of diesel by this generator was not predicted. In terms of the malfunctioning generator, the parts have been ordered from abroad,” said Mayisela.
The market generates an annual turnover of R1.6billion is an important contributor to the city’s economy.
Commenting on the impact of load shedding on Durban businesses, Palesa Phili, the chief executive of the Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said that for most small businesses in both the formal and informal sectors, the two-to-four-hour loss of productive time was crippling.
Phili said the power cuts placed a significant negative financial burden on businesses as they lost thousands of rand with each instance of load shedding.
She encouraged businesses to purchase alternative energy solutions such as generators, inverters or UPS (uninterruptible power supply) devices to mitigate the worst effects of load shedding.