Local authorities 'aggravate' power crisis

Peggy Drodskie, the acting head of the South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry, believes the power crisis is going to get a lot worse as next year's local government elections approach.

"We think there will be more serious ramifications as we head to the local government elections," she says.

But has the power crisis not been about politics to some extent anyway?

"Yes, but it seems to be getting worse. Local government officials tend to resist offers of assistance from outside because they say they know what they're doing."

Much local government infrastructure is in such poor working order that when power is switched off for a few hours at midday, it takes the rest of the day to switch back on again, Drodskie says.

"They may say in the schedules that power will be off from midday to 3pm. It may reconnect at 3pm but they're not able to reconnect many of the areas they service for the rest of the day. So one incidence of load shedding wipes businesses out for a whole day."

Many businesses say they would prefer to be off for the whole day because then they could tell their staff not to come in. But they need to know in good time so they can negotiate with labour. This is not happening, says Drodskie.

"Stakeholders are starting to recognise that this is no longer an Eskom problem, it is a national problem."

She says that service delivery is "non-existent" in some local government jurisdictions, with "devastating" consequences for businesses.

"If you add the electricity problems to water outages, potholes not being fixed, broken sewerage systems and so on, it is actually a very, very big problem," she says.

Drodskie fears that service delivery will deteriorate further as 2016 approaches and fighting for positions gets fiercer.

"ANC factions are fighting each other within local government in Limpopo so that there is absolutely nothing happening," she says. - Chris Barron