Businesses reel from load shedding

The constant power cuts usually lasted for hours. On Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday last week, business was again disrupted as power cuts started late in the afternoon. Power only returned late in the evening.In an interview with Mmegi recently, a senior official at Database-net Internet Caf located at the busy Barclays Plaza building, Mooketsi Mooketsi, complained that their venture has lost an extensive amount of revenue in recent weeks as a result of constant power disruptions.

'In this nature of business, every hour lost is money. We also serve a lot of tertiary students who do assignments here. If there are constant power cuts, they also lose vital information and do not submit assignments on time. The past three weeks have been hell because of power disruptions,' he disclosed.Likewise, Ishmael Seretsi who runs Rootical Boutique, also at Barclays Plaza, stated that his business has extensively suffered from constant power cuts.

'We do understand that the BPC at times has problems to meet escalating power demands around the country and resort to load shedding to prolong supply, but for the past few weeks power cuts have been too much. The tellers we use are powered by electricity. When there are power cuts we end up having to close because we cannot initiate any transaction for customers, which means we lose business. We also close to avoid shoplifting because when there is no power it becomes dark inside the shop,' he said.Rose Gallaso who owns a jewellery store near Thata Save building, said her business has also been affected by power cuts.

'My photocopying business suffers the most. It's been devastating but we understand that the BPC does not have enough supply channels to provide electricity for the whole country. We hope that things will be back to normal soon,' she stated.At Shell Filling Station near Rudy's Furniture Shop, the manager, Alfred Kwite, said they have not experienced any major disruption in their businesses since constant power disruptions started here nearly three weeks ago.  'We normally use diesel powered generators when there are power cuts to sustain our operations,' he said.  The BPC has stated that load shedding will last until June when the Morupule B power unit will be ready to serve the whole country.

'We plead with Batswana to understand the corporation's position. The load shedding is meant to avert a situation where there may be no electricity supply at all around the country,' he said.