It has been a hard weekend for the city and surrounding areas due to disruptions in the provision of water and electricity. Many of the communities affected by water shortages had to rely on water trucks for supply. Hundreds of small and medium-sized businesses had to scale down, or even close, their operations as it became clear that the power disruption was not going to be for a few days but, by some estimates, was going to last up to 10 days.
Anecdotal information suggests the accommodation and tourism industry were among the hardest hit as hosts of Airbnb establishments had to turn back customers as they could not guarantee them electricity. How long it is going to take the industry to recover is still unknown. What is clear, however, is that what befell the city this weekend further shows the desperate need for co-operation between the city council, local business and civil society groupings.
No single player, no matter how important and powerful, can resolve the city’s problems alone. Over the weekend, as some residents took to the streets in search of water andelectricityin neighbouring communities that were fortunate to have either or both, we witnessed many sharing these basic necessities with those who were without. It is this spirit of working together that the leaders in politics, business and society should draw from if they are to succeed in restoring power and water provision in record time.
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The shortages are no time for cheap political point scoring. We need to get the city back running in full capacity as soon as possible. If there are additional skills that the city is going to need to do so, it has an entire business community to lean on. But this can only be done if both the politicians and business are of same mind as to what needs to be done to turn the city into an industrial hub.
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