Sigh of relief over end to blackouts

By Ntokozo Mfusi

Business owners and residents have collectively heaved a sigh of relief since Eskom's announcement on Wednesday that there would be no more scheduled power cuts until further notice.

However, business and the eThekwini Municipality have warned users not to abandon their energy-conserving efforts to ensure that the suspension of outages is prolonged.

The manager of the trade and business information chamber in the Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Denise Chendip, said the announcement was welcomed by business.

"The business sector wholeheartedly welcomes the announcement, although we must consider that the announcement is short-term and therefore we should still be cautious in our use of electricity."



The chairperson of the Florida Road Business Chamber and the owner of Europa restaurant, Mike Hollard, was ecstatic at news of the reprieve, even if it was for a while.

Concerning

"It is absolutely fantastic. We welcome the break from load-shedding and the potential loss of business," he said.

"However, it is a bit concerning that the council did not know about this when we met with them a week ago, because we went back and relayed that our members should take precautionary measures because, according to the council, there was nothing that could be done about the load-shedding situation."

Lillian Develing, chairperson of the Confederation of Mistbelt Ratepayers' and Residents' Associations - which includes ratepayers' associations in Botha's Hill, Hillcrest and Kloof - said the announcement had come at the right time with "winter at our doorstep".

"Thank heavens for that because many residents found themselves being load-shed twice daily and the power cuts caused faults at the substations when electricity was being put back on, meaning that people had to stay without power for even longer. The concern now is how long we stay without load-shedding," said Develing.

Msunduzi municipal manager Rob Haswell echoed Develing's sentiments and urged people to make an effort to save more energy than before.

"It's very good news and, although I think we have not experienced real load-shedding and have simply been shifting the load around, we do need to ensure that we use 10 percent less than we have been using," he said.

"Resources such as water and electricity are limited and, as a developing country, we should use them wisely."

The head of the eThekwini electricity department, Sandile Maphumulo, said consumers would determine whether the suspension of power cuts was prolonged.

"If we do the right thing, it can be long-lived, and if we do not do the right thing, we have no one but ourselves to blame (for the consequences)," said Maphumulo.

He said his department would insert energy-saving tips in newspapers to inform people of what to do to save electricity.

Asked about the increased technical failures experienced by the city since the advent of power cuts, he said the electricity often tripped when power was restored, because of the surge of energy.