Alexandra businesses struggle amid power outages as City Power cuts off non-payers

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Businesses in Alexandra township in Joburg are struggling to remain open and some have had to let employees go because of load-shedding, which escalated to stage six last week. 

And to add to households’ and businesses’ problems, City Power started its first day of revenue collection in Alexandra, which will result in cutting off the electricity supply to non-paying customers.

The managing director of Thathe restaurant, Nhlanhla Malisa, told the Mail & Guardian that his business is running at a loss because of the additional costs that come with trying to keep working despite extended power outages.

“Storing food is a serious problem because our fridges are constantly going on and off and then our stock gets ruined,” he said.

Supervisor at Freedom supermarket Moses Ndlovu said even though the business could afford a generator, that was not the end of their problems because the cost of fuel is increasing. 

He said load-shedding did not only affect their business but also the staff.

“We have had a lot of our staff reporting sick because of the fumes from the generator. We cannot even get the air conditioners working because we are trying to save on fuel,” he said. 

“We cannot fully function as a business. Not so long ago, we had to throw out our perishable stock because one of our fridges suddenly stopped working and the technicians said it was because of load-shedding.”

With the country’s unemployment rate above 30%, some businesses have had to lay off employees due to financial constraints brought on by Eskom’s failure to supply power. 

Melita Kekana told the M&G that after losing her job because of the Covid-19 pandemic, she opened a salon in the township so she could take care of her family. But now she has had to close her small business.

“I had employed more than 10 people, and with load-shedding getting worse, I had to let them go and close down. Now, 10 families and more have to suffer because of a situation that the government can fix. We are really being let down.”

Malisa said: “We had to cut restaurant staff due to business being slow and also having to cut costs. I really hope that our government will hear our cry as small-business owners.”

City Power said that only 4% of businesses and residents in Alexandra pay for electricity and it aims to recover R363 million that it says is owed to the Alexandra Service Delivery Centre.

“In the next three days, we will be going after at least R36 million, which is the money that is sitting mostly with businesses. Therefore, we will be targeting businesses today and tomorrow. From there, we will be targeting residential areas,” spokesperson Isaac Mangena said.

The first stop was the Engen garage, near Alex Mall. After speaking to the manager, who said that payments were being made by Engen, officials gave him just one day to get documentation to prove that the account is up to date.

“Our electricity bill is up to date, as it is paid directly from Engen’s head office,” insisted manager John Kalavina.

The principal of St Martin’s pre-school, run by St Hubert’s Catholic Church in Alexandra, said it is “selfish” of City Power to be quick to cut off the electricity supply to businesses when their technicians were never available to help when there were problems.

“It has been six days now without electricity because of cable theft. We have called multiple times to City Power letting them know of our struggles and no one was there to assist,” said the principal, who did not want to be named.

“As paying customers, with a bill that is up to date, it is very disturbing having to deal with such incompetence.”

Kekana said: “Citizens better start believing that the power to change all of this is in their hands; we cannot keep on living like this. We have to vote the ANC out, as they have continuously failed to help us.”