Cape Town — South African media personality Simz Ngema has spoken up on behalf of small businesses in South Africa affected by the continuous load shedding.
She took to her Instagram timeline and uploaded a video where she called out the government for its inability to solve South Africa’s current power crisis and spoke about how her friend’s business was affected by the load shedding.
“It is important for us to start having these conversations. We cannot be making plans to work around load shedding as citizens when we are still paying for electricity. What is our government doing to solve this electricity crisis? It’s time for the government to step up and address the issues of the country.” she said in the caption.
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In the video, she shares the story of her friend and says the government should be held responsible for the problem and that citizens deserve to use the power they pay for.
“I went to my friends salon to do my hair and it was load shedding. I watched him struggle to get fuel for his generator. This is somebody that has made a plan to make a living for himself, he’s not waiting for opportunities from the government, yet the government is failing him”.
“The government is more interested in campaigning and telling us that load-shedding will be over next year but they are not making sensible statements to show us and give us hope that indeed this is going to happen, there is going to be a solution. All we want is for the government to supply citizens with electricity they paid for … These conversations are draining but we need to hold our government accountable,” she said.
Many of her followers agreed with her rant and believe South Africans should do more in order to achieve the change they need.
According to The South African, several studies have shown that load shedding has impacted small businesses in South Africa. The ‘Impact of load shedding on small businesses in the township economy 2023 report’ stated that 64% of small business have to halt their business operations during load shedding.
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Picture: Instagram/@simzngema
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Compiled by Matthew Petersen
