Business gets stymied by national shutdown

Police have arrested at least 87 people for public violence-related offences

ECONOMIC activity ground to a halt in South Africa on Monday as businesses in major centres closed their doors and the logistics industry was disrupted in response to the national shutdown.

The shutdown, which was called for by the EFF, saw thousands of people taking to the streets to protest against crippling power cuts, the rising cost of living, the high unemployment rate, and crime, among other socio-economic concerns.

At least 87 people were arrested for public violence-related offences in the nationwide anti-government protests that began before midnight on Sunday.

In his weekly newsletter on Monday, President Cyril Ramaphosa reiterated the right of any person or organisation to protest, but said no one should be forced, threatened or intimidated into joining that protest.

“In fulfilment of its constitutional responsibility to protect the rights of all people, the government will always have measures in place to ensure that everyone who wants to go to work, travel for leisure and conduct business can do so in a safe and secure environment,” Ramaphosa said.

There was very little business activity in the Johannesburg and Pretoria CBDs on Monday.

On the outskirts of major commercial hubs, business continued as usual, with local taxis ferrying community members, although the situation was tense.

The scale of the impact of the shutdown on the economy has not been evaluated. However, estimates are that the one-day national shutdown could have cost the economy more than R1.2 billion in generated wealth.

Business Leadership SA on Monday slammed the calls for the shutdown, saying they were massively counterproductive to efforts aimed at ending load shedding and putting the economy back on a growth path.

BLSA chief executive Busi Mavuso said threats to businesses added to the already negative business sentiment in the country.

Mavuso said the calls for the national shutdown were a political tactic that clashed with the country’s democratic dispensation.

“What started as a movement by organised labour has been captured for political purposes, undermining the legitimate motives that labour may have had in calling for legal protest in the first place,” Mavuso said.

“Our focus should instead be on building businesses, rather than shutting them down.

“We should be working to reform the way our economy works, not trying to stop it working. Of course, building is always harder than tearing things down.”

Meanwhile, Eskom suspended load shedding for the second consecutive day on Monday owing to significantly lower than anticipated demand for electricity.

Breakdowns on Monday were at 15 645MW of generating capacity, while 4 942MW of generating capacity is out of service for planned maintenance.

Minister in the Presidency responsible for electricity, Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, on Monday went on a tour of the Duvha power station in Mpumalanga, where he kick-started his engagements with management, workers, and unions at Eskom’s 14 power stations.

Ramokgopa said he believed Eskom employees were at the heart of resolving the ongoing energy crisis.

“My view has always been (that) the biggest asset for any organisation is its workers, and the reason we’re starting from the bottom up is to appreciate and understand the efforts being made at the station level,” he said.

The African Energy Chamber on Monday released its “State of South African Energy” report, a comprehensive engagement with the country’s energy crisis that will be discussed at African Energy Week later this year.

The chamber’s executive chairperson, NJ Ayuk, said their report provided another troubling detail – the cumulative effect of the outages on what South Africa could have achieved.

Ayuk said since 2007 load shedding had cost South Africa a staggering R1.5 billion, some R2.4 billion per day, resulting in 1 to 1.3% of the country’s gross domestic product being shaved away every year since then.

“That means that, without load shedding, South Africa’s economy could have been about 17% larger than it is now,” Ayuk said.

“I know there is little that can be done about what could have been, but I hope that confronting these painful truths galvanises South Africa’s leadership into putting the country on a new path – one where the country begins realising its full potential.”