Power outages: PMB businesses suffer losses
Businesses in Pietermaritzburg say ongoing power outages in the city need to be dealt with as a matter of urgency.
Melanie Veness, from the Pietermaritzburg Chamber of Business, says constant interruptions to the electricity supply have also led to temporary closures which have been detrimental to production processes.
"There have been fines for contracts that are not met because people have run out of time in terms of production. There are additional costs with highly sensitive equipment that people lost when their power dipped. There are enormous costs to business," she says.
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Veness has called on Msunduzi Muncipality to find a permanent solution to the problem.
"Power goes off in large areas of Pietermaritzburg. We've had different explanations for why this has happened. They're extended outages and not just one, two-hour outages," she says.
Msunduzi municipality's Thobeka Mafumbatha says they are addressing the outages as they occur.
"We had an issue that has been sorted in Sweetwaters. When it happens, we have private contractors as well as our own workers dealing with the issues as they come," she says.