Businesspeople in the Free State town of Parys, a popular tourism destination, are reeling from both the aftermath of the Covid-19 lockdown and the effects of a dysfunctional municipality.
Declining service delivery levels at Ngwathe Local Municipality have made businesses incur more costs to keep their doors open.
The municipality covers areas such as Parys, one of the huge tourist attraction areas in the Free State.
Businessman Piet Meyer, who owns a shop and deli in Parys, told Sunday Times Daily he had to spend more than R350,000 for the purchase and installation of a generator that would be able to operate his entire store.
“I can’t afford to break the cold chain of the meat I sell. It has to be at a certain temperature the moment it leaves the farm, arrives at the store and also leaves the store,” he explained.
Water is another challenge and a truck delivers 200 litres of water daily as he says the supply from the municipality is not constant.
“I can’t tell customers that we can’t serve them because we don’t have water. I also can’t open my doors but tell them they can’t use the bathroom because we don’t have water. I had to come up with a plan to make sure that our business continues to run,” he said.
With the easing of lockdown regulations, one B&B owner was hopeful he would be able to welcome more guests since interprovincial travel was allowed.
Elize van Holtzhuizen, who runs a B&B in Parys, said as business owners they had to spend money just to ensure they kept their doors open.
“You must have your own borehole water to make sure that you can provide guests with water 24/7. A generator is also a must-have here because you need it to pump the water and power the rooms,” she said.
Van Holtzhuizen said it was also embarrassing to hear guests complain about the uncollected rubbish standing on the side of roads.
“I really wish the municipality could come to the party and just do what they are supposed to do,” she said.
Ngwathe Municipality spokesperson Steve Naale said most of the water problems were because of old infrastructure.
“Furthermore, water absence was as a result of load-shedding, and areas that are highly affected are supplied by water tankers. The municipality has also increased the number of water trucks.
“The water trident plant at the Parys water purification was out of operation and this also caused water shortages and it has since been repaired and the replacement of filtration system is to ensure water quality is improved,” he said.
Another B&B owner who did not want to be named said it was tough to keep the doors open. He recently had to refund all six customers who had booked in to his B&B because there was no electricity.
“This was a huge blow to us, but I felt it was the honourable thing to do because we couldn’t give them warm water the whole weekend,” he said.
He said though the power outage was because of a transformer that blew up, he wished the municipality could have provided the area with backup power such as generators to help businesses keep their doors open.
At the moment he could not afford a generator.
“We just came out of the lockdown and had been out of business for almost six months,” he said.
The irregular water supply is also having a knock-on effect on B&B businesses. “Our business is all about cleanliness. When guests come here, they must get clean linen. How are we going to do that when the water supply just gets cut off without any warning?”
Louise Kenny, of the Parys Info Centre, said before the lockdown there were nearly 160 B&Bs in Parys. At the moment, there are about 120 that are operational, though some are struggling.
Ordinary residents are also affected. Pensioner Ian Barrie has to part with R600 every month to pay for bottled water.
“The quality of water from our taps is just not good. Boiling it will also not help because the water is brown in colour,” he told Sunday Times Daily.
“We honestly can’t live like this; it’s not on,” said Barrie.
