Power and water outages bruise Joburg businesses with mounting losses

PULL QUOTE =“The water from the tankers won’t be enough to cook, clean, do the dishes and use toilets.” — Emmarentia resident Ahmad Hassan Days without a reliable water supply, a reliance ontankersfor the precious liquid, hundreds of rand spent on petrol and diesel for generators, and mounting business losses have become part of daily life for some Johannesburg residents. Service delivery failures in the city have intensified following a substation explosion and a strike by workers at Joburg Water. In recent weeks, households and small businesses across the city have been forced to absorb additional costs just to survive, despite paying rates and taxes meant to guarantee basic services.

A repair shop owner on Harrison Street, Khakhi Takem, said since Friday’sBree Street substation transformer fire, he has spent R550 a day for fuel for his generator. Takem pays more than R10,000 rent a month, which he worries he won’t be able to meet in February. “I might lose more customers and won’t be making any profit, and the money that is coming in is just going to keep the shop running with a generator,” he said.

City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena said the utility has made significant progress in clearing the burnt transformer from the Bree Street site, with power expected to be restored by the end of the week. “Our technicians continue to work around the clock under strict safety conditions to restore supply as soon as possible, and earlier restorations remain the goal where feasible,” he said. The incident affected parts of Bree Street West, Marshalltown, and the Johannesburg CBD, including Rahima Moosa Street.

[paywall]

A print shop owner said he has lost R3,000 a day since Friday. “More than R300 is spent on a generator to keep the lights on, but that is not even enough because it can’t keep the printers on or power all the computers,” he said.

[/paywall]