The recent power outages experienced throughout the country from early this week have adversely affected small businesses which sell perishable products.
According to Botswana Power Corporation (BPC), the outage was due to a disturbance on the Phokoje-Matimba 400Kv line resulting in nationwide blackouts from Monday and part of Tuesday.
In an interview, a poultry farmer Onkgopotse Motlhabane lamented that he lost stock worth P14 000 as the chicken men went bad.
“I slaughtered a total of 200 chickens over the weekend and each chicken was to be sold at P70 giving me a profit of P6000 excluding the P8000 that I used for production,” Onkgopotse lamented.
He noted that as a newly established business he was unable to secure any backup for his fridges. Motlhabane said had he known in advance of the power cut, he would have not slaughtered the chickens.
Motlhabane further said he has since accepted his fate, adding that it was a learning curve as he accepts that there will always be risks in business. He added that it was a challenge which every business can go through.
Meanwhile a local butchery owner who preferred to be anonymous noted that he had to close his business and returned customers on Tuesday from 2 pm till closing time resulting to a loss in those two days.
“I pay a monthly rent and due to the power cut I have lost a lot that would have generated either to paying rent or profits,” he lamented.
Meanwhile BPC, Chief Executive Officer David Kgoboko has said they aware of the damage caused by the power blackouts on businesses. Speaking during a press briefing on Monday, Kgoboko assured that they are working tirelessly to address the power supply situation.
According to him, the national power demand currently ranges from 380MW (off-peak) to 600MW during peak.
“With the current output from our power plants and what we are able to import from the region, we anticipate a supply deficit of around 120MW. Therefore, to manage the supply deficit the corporation has had to institute rotational load shedding since Monday,” Kgoboko noted.
He explained that they are expecting the situation to improve as generation at Morupule B and A power station is restored to normal adding that they are expecting to achieve this by mid-week.
