The daily load shedding impact on our small business has caused instability and disruption to our productivity and operations.
Our company, Ntsikie Real Estate, is a 100% black, female-owned real estate agency, whose core business is selling and leasing out properties in Gauteng. I started this business after being in the property industry in Cape Town for some time.
I realised that I needed to grow. I returned to Gauteng, armed with a love for the property industry ,and started my own business because there are too few black owners in this sector. I also wanted young people to become players in real estate. We mentor and train interns from intern agents to full status and finally, to principalship. It is a developmental training process, preparing young women and men to become principal realtors. This is important because they will become players in the industry, employing other young people, and the economy will not be skewed. This is where you are able to create wealth for young people and the country – more black people must go from being agents to full-status agents or principals.
We sourced an office space in early 2022, to professionalise our operations and offer premises and all the infrastructure that comes with an office for our young team. This kind of support cannot be successful without access to uninterrupted electricity.
2022 has been a challenging year for us as a business. The electricity supply interruptions during our critical hours between 9am and 1pm has impacted negatively on our productivity in ways that forced the company to prematurely cancel the office lease in December 2022. As a young and a small real estate agency, we can never survive without daily and consistent direct marketing, reaching out to potential clients, who are property owners, and canvassing our services and offerings. We can reach our target market only in an environment in which we have access to uninterrupted wi-fi, emails and telephone calls.
This situation has been exacerbated by the fact that during load shedding, we were supported by a generator, which did not give us smooth connectivity to wi-fi and uninterrupted telephone calls. As a result, we were forced to pack up and go to our respective homes, where some of the intern agents did not have access to wi-fi. The shocking amount one had to fork out in addition to the rent, to cover for the diesel, was not doable for a small operation like ours.
Where does this leave us as a business? In dire strait, losing my trainees, less productivity, fewer listings or leases, fewer potential buyers or tenants, fewer sales, less revenue for the business… All this is tied to us securing more stock, stock we secure by successfully connecting to potential sellers in our target market, the property owners. Stock translates into sales and sales into much-needed revenue.
Cancelling the lease before the expiration date has seen us incur penalties, which we cannot afford, but it is better to get out of such an arrangement while one can save the reputation of the company and its directors.
To save my business and retain its talent, I am using my commission to help keep us afloat. This should not be the case and we need a power supply that is stable and reliable.
That’s why I have joined the class action suit by a team of lawyers led by Tembeka Ngcukaitobi SC. We are looking to the courts for urgent relief against load shedding and a Nersa-approved tariff hike.
Our company has been reduced to a home office, taking us backwards, stifling our growth and the future of the young women and men we supported through mentorship and development.
Conducted diligently, the real estate business can be profitable and will bring more young black men and women into an industry that will create much-needed jobs for the country. However, erratic power supply, that affects so many sectors, is harming the best efforts to do this.
Mgayiya is the owner and founder of Ntsikie Mgayiya Real Estate