Durban — The Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry NPC has proposed interventions to be taken following the eThekwini Municipality’s statement on the city reverting to a normal load-shedding schedule on May 25.
Chief executive Palesa Phili said the chamber had noted the statement regarding the introduction of a new load-shedding schedule.
Phili said they would like to recognise the effort that the municipality team, led by mayor Mxolisi Kaunda, put into advancing Eskom together with the private business community to have eThekwini city businesses exempt from load shedding from stages 1 to 3.
Phili said that following the announcement by the municipality on Tuesday regarding the matter, “as organised business we are deeply concerned about the return to normal load-shedding stages as experienced by the rest of the country”.
“Load shedding severely impacts the economy across crucial economic sectors, resulting in loss of productivity, which inevitably leads to revenue losses and unplanned operational expenditure across industries and their value chains.”
Phili said that the exemption from load shedding of eThekwini businesses followed the July 2021 unrest, and April and May floods which saw many businesses destroyed and in need of assistance.
“Now we are hit with this news, while to date we still have not yet received a clear infrastructure repair roll-out plan with timelines from eThekwini.
“The infrastructure is in a critical state, and businesses, corporate and SMMEs (small, medium, and micro enterprises) will be severely impacted by this implementation. We are aware that there will be an exception made for industries block 17–20 who will only be affected from stage 7; however, this is not enough nor is it a solution,” Phili said.
“As organised business, we are in a critical state in the city of eThekwini, and we believe the implementation of a new load-shedding schedule will worsen economic losses.”
Phili urged Kaunda and his heads of departments to consider the following proposed interventions:
- Consultation with the city on the rationale of how the schedule decisions are made and the private sector to be given an opportunity to contribute to the proposed schedule.
- Reconsider the decision. Durban is still recovering from the recent catastrophic events, the Covid-19 pandemic, 2021 July unrest, and April and May 2022 floods.
- Make adequate provision for the South Durban Basin. The city’s electricity infrastructure in the South Durban Basin experienced severe damage because of the floods. The highly vulnerable state of the electricity network in the South Durban Basin is a cause for concern for the chamber’s members.
Phili said the chamber believes more needs to be done to move towards energy security in the country and in the city. Energy generation should be led by the private sector to rapidly expand the generation capacity in the country and in eThekwini. In addition, there are numerous technology options which could negate the need for load shedding which are not being explored.
“We urge the city to consider the proposed interventions and need provincial and national intervention in the discussions regarding this matter. If we continue in this direction, we are headed for more catastrophic business collapse which we are not sure if we will recover from,” Phili said.
She said the chamber remains committed to working with the city to tackle the issue of load shedding and achieve a secure and stable energy supply.
Meanwhile, earlier, the DA in eThekwini wrote to Kaunda, asking him to call an emergency executive council meeting to address the load-shedding crisis.
DA eThekwini caucus leader Thabani Mthethwa said the party had written to exco chairperson Kaunda, demanding an urgent meeting so he and city manager Musa Mbhele can address councillors on the announcement that a full load-shedding schedule will be implanted in the municipality.
In the letter dated May 17, Mthethwa said: “… As the municipality has announced the plans to introduce load shedding from stage 1 upwards, I’m sure you would be aware that the city’s electricity infrastructure is highly compromised because of the infrastructure will not be able to cope with the demand and an on-and-off switching.”
“It is in light of this that I write to you in your capacity as the chairperson of the executive committee to convene an emergency exco meeting to discuss the impact of this load shedding to the economy and residents and come with plans as to how to mitigate the imminent crisis,” the letter concluded.
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