Many businesses in the Grahamstown CBD had to close their doors due to a 12-hour long power outage, without a word from the municipality to explain or apologise to the locals who were unable to trade. According to numerous business owners the power disruption began soon after 12am on Monday and continued into the following day. “It’s screwing up the computing systems.
Many businesses in the Grahamstown CBD had to close their doors due to a 12-hour long power outage, without a word from the municipality to explain or apologise to the locals who were unable to trade. According to numerous business owners the power disruption began soon after 12am on Monday and continued into the following day. “It’s screwing up the computing systems. Screwing up the aircon and our bookings,” said Victor Banks, of Gary’s Refrigerator and Home Appliances on Hill Street. The Oatlands Bakery, Clicks Pharmacy and Woolworths shops, all along High Street, were among those that had to close, losing business and frustrating customers. The owner of Connocks Butchery, Wikus Coetzeer, said that they had ordered meat in advance, but then the staff couldn't do anything with it and had to close for the day. “With the fax machine and e-mail down, we can’t do anything,” added Sarah Timm, the butchery’s office assistant. Some businesses managed to continue operating, either with the use of generators or by manually writing down sales, “but that obviously opens up quite a lot of gates for mistakes and stock theft,” said Pennypinchers store manager Pierre du Plessis. “I’m also pretty sure there’s a couple of customers that are not entirely happy and end up walking out”. “If I don’t use my generator, it’s going to be a mess,” said Piet Bester, manager of the Butterfly Snack Shop. “I’ve lost a lot of business because the airtime machines are off, the cash registers are off,” he said. “And nobody has come to say ‘sorry for the inconvenience’ or anything, we must just grapple with it. That’s not the way to do it.” The Makana Municipality electricity department gave no warning or explanation for the power outage, and when italGrocott's Mail/ital attempted to contact the department and the municipal spokesperson, Thandy Matebese, we were unable to reach anyone within the municipality.
