KwaDukuza businesses losing millions due to outages

KwaDukuza businesses losing millions due to outages

The iLembe Chamber of Commerce says it is still tallying the losses amid the persistent power outages in KwaDukuza.

Close up photo of a light bulb
Close up photo of a light bulb/Pexels Website

Residents and businesses have been bearing the brunt due to continuous blackouts since last year.

 

Two weeks ago, the area was without electricity for more than 72 hours due to a major cable fault at one of the substations.

 

Over the weekend, there was another 40-hour outage after the water flowed into one of the cables, causing the electricity to trip again.

 

Technicians worked to restore supply. 

 

The Chamber's Chief Executive Officer, Cobus Oelofse, says some enterprises lost millions of rands, including expenses associated with backup energy.


READ: Fuel prices set to increase in February

 

"It’s estimated that on one specific day. which was 13 December, some of the losses were up to R1.5 million. Some of the bigger shopping centres said it might be up to R3 million worth of trading on those days. 


"This is not only in terms of trading losses but also in the management of alternative systems and the fuel that is being consumed. We have got an industrial user that during an outage burning 275 litres of fuel per hour." 

 

Ward 60 Councillor Jack Abrahams says community members are not taking this well at all and have called for cool heads.

 

"Residents are very furious, and they are very frustrated, businesses have been affected. We live in a time where people work from home and a lot of them are unable to work or have their work interrupted because of the power supply that is not stable. The issue is still not fully fixed, it is on at the moment, but there are still a few issues on the line."  


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