Johannesburg - With the country oscillating between stage-4 and stage-6 load shedding since the start of the year, South Africans, including celebrities such as radio DJ T bo Touch and fashion designer Thula Sindi, have decried the impact rolling blackouts are having on their businesses.
Many have taken to social media to voice their frustrations at having to operate their lives and businesses under these trying circumstances.
On Wednesday, the Metro FM afternoon drive host took to Twitter to lament how small businesses were being made to suffer because of the energy crisis engulfing the country.
“I don’t see my company functioning under stage 6; it’s a serious struggle for SMMEs. I can’t keep up at all! What must happen now? We are headed for even more job losses. Sad reality, and I’m the last person to lose hope, but I can’t see us surviving this one,” the man born Thabo Mofokeng tweeted.
T-Bo Touch’s sentiments were shared by the fashion guru Thula Sindi on Thursday morning, who said his business was suffering at the hands of Eskom just as he was returning to work after the Christmas holidays.
“Today, our second day back at work, and there is simply no point. Staff can’t even come earlier than 9am to start work because there won't be electricity then either. Ja-nee, Eskom, Gauteng ANC and Cyril Ramaphosa, you are killing us in all ways,” he said.
On Wednesday, Eskom said stage-6 load shedding would be implemented from 4pm “until further notice”.
This, the power utility said, was owing to “severe capacity constraints” which meant continued reliance on emergency generation reserves.
This came after the power utility reported that seven units had tripped. While three had returned to service, three other units had been delayed in being restored, including the first unit of the Matla power station, which was also shut down on Tuesday night to repair a boiler tube leak.
“Eleven generators amounting to 5 084MW of capacity suffered breakdowns since Tuesday morning, further reducing available capacity and necessitating the increase in the stages of load shedding.”
“These were one unit each at the Camden, Duvha, Grootvlei, Hendrina and Kendal (power stations), and two units each at (the) Kriel, Majuba and Matla power stations,” Eskom said.
The two personalities are not the only ones who have used Twitter to air their disapproval of what is happening at Eskom. Even former Eskom engineer Matshela Koko complained about the problem of sleeping and waking up to no power.
The Star