Mr Kutelani Sitholimela runs a popular restaurant in Mauluma, called Mauluma Restaurant and Bar lounge, popularly known as Ha-Rungi. He says that, ever since the persistent load shedding started, he has spent more than R250 per day to keep his two generators operating, so that he does not lose business.
"When is this load shedding business going to stop? It is costing us too much and the price of fuel is also high. Imagine having a busy weekend at the lounge and the electricity goes off for four hours. I cannot afford to leave my customers in the dark. I need at least two big generators just to light up this place and make sure that the refrigerators keep running, because my customers want their beers cold," he said while pushing a heavy-looking generator out in preparation of the night's business.
Keeping the beer cold, however, is the least of his worries. He also has a restaurant to run. "I use gas stoves, but even the price of gas is up. Everything is expensive here in South Africa now. We too are also forced to increase the prices of our food, but we know we will be killing our customers because they don't have money either. On top of this, we are expected to pay electricity bills for electricity that we are not even using. This load shedding is killing us all," he said.