All hope is gone for many small business owners due to continued load shedding

While the President begs for patience, small businesses are going under one after another.

Lester Kiewit interviews Marshall Nelson - a small business owner from Mitchells Plain, and Lungiswa Xhamela - a South African online English teacher who lost 80% of her international students in a week due to the ongoing load shedding.

• Small businesses that cannot adopt expensive load shedding solutions go out of business - taking the jobs they provide with them

• Foreign clients have little sympathy for South Africans’ load shedding woes – leading to more loss of income

President Cyril Ramaphosa is calling for South Africans to have patience with load shedding, saying he knows it is causing havoc.

Longsuffering residents have, of course, struggled with load shedding since 2007. So, patience is wearing thin - especially for small businesses that struggle to adapt to the electricity supply shortage.

It seems we received better service back then [during apartheid] … Why are we having load shedding? …

Marshall Nelson, Mitchells Plain small business owner

I was forced to buy a generator that cost me R20,000 - otherwise, my office can’t run… If I didn’t have the generator, I would’ve had to close my business…

Marshall Nelson, Mitchells Plain small business owner

Nelson laments the fact that businesses in affluent areas continue operating during load shedding but elsewhere almost everything grinds to a halt.

I can go to Century City… even if the power is off. You go to Mitchells Plain, and only Checkers and Capitec Bank is operating…

Marshall Nelson, Mitchells Plain small business owner

Load shedding is also putting South Africans’ remote international jobs at risk.

I have lost 80% of my students. I mainly teach international students… They leave bad reviews; they say I’m unprofessional… Buying a UPS or generator… I’m saving up… but with less income, it became harder…

Lungiswa Xhamela, Online English teacher

Kiewit interviewed Nelson and Xhamela (scroll up to listen).

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