Festive season losses after Mbamba area blackout

MBAMBA Business Centre in Tsholotsho district has been hit by a power blackout which saw shop owners counting losses during the festive season and the problem persists.

Electricity pylons fell following last month’s heavy rains which were preceded by strong winds resulting in the entire area plunging into darkness.

Retailers had stocked up their shops in anticipation of a boom in business during the festive season.

Butcheries, which also slaughtered beasts, were left counting losses after the meat went bad including other perishables.

Mbamba area, like most parts of Tsholotsho, turns into a hive of activity during the festive seasons as diasporans based in South Africa popularly known as injiva would have returned home to spend Christmas with their families.

Mbamba Business Association chairperson Kephasi Ndebele said they reported the fault to Zesa, but nothing has been done to address the issue.

“They told us that they had transport challenges and hence could not make it. This did not happen to me only, everyone at the business centre has been affected by this fault. These fallen pylons also pose a danger to both humans and our livestock,” said Ndebele.

He said he had bought a whole carcass of meat and other items like drinks as he wanted to capitalise on the festive season.

“While drinks may not be perishable, they are not of any value when sold at room temperature. So to us, the drinks are as good as perishables as long as we won’t have electricity here because no one will buy a drink that is not cold,” said Ndebele.

The business centre is home to 15 grocery shops, bottle stores and butcheries.

To add to their woes over losses, Ndebele said Tsholotsho Rural District Council licence inspectors will soon be pouncing on them demanding licence renewals while employees too, will need salaries.

“No one is running away from paying the statutory fees, but all we are saying is can’t council understand our predicament and maybe give us some grace period for us to be back on our feet in terms of business,” said Ndebele.

“The unavailability of power has affected us and we lost business during the festive season.”

The power outage is also said to have affected businesses at Tshefunye Business Centre as it shares the same base station with Mbamba.

Zesa spokesperson, George Manyaya had, by late yesterday, not responded to inquiries sent to him last week.