The current power cuts adversely impacting the business community in Murambinda and the Buhera constituency at large, hampering their day to day business operations.
Companies are finding it difficult to operate their business as they are going for 14 hours without electricity, which means the load shedding is surpassing their normal working hours which is 8 hours.
Electricity outages are also affecting small to medium enterprises (S.M.Es) , supermarkets , hospitals , banks, grinding mills , service stations and other business operations severely .
The business community is left in dilemma as there are no cheap alternatives for electricity with fuel prices going up and being only sold in foreign currency whilst their operate in local currency the Zimbabwean Gold (ZIG), and LP gas is becoming scarce in Murambinda at the same time pegged at $35 zig per kilogram and the Solar system for a business unit on average costs $1800 Usd including installations.
Sandco supermarket has resorted to reducing its trading hours from 8 hours to 6 hours due to load shedding.
Grind mill operators are forced to work midnight and charge exorbitant prices to vulnerable customers who are queuing for two days before their mille meal is grinded.
“We are losing customers every day and sometimes our swipe machines battery runs out and this does not make sense in a cashless society were hard currency is rare to come by “ , said one shop owner identified as Brian Sistole.
A vendor from the bus terminus who was identified as Maud, said the heavy power outages is affecting her business as she deals with perishable goods which needs to be refrigerated .
A local food court manager Mr. Jasmine Mboko said the electricity situation has affected their business as they had to resort to alternative power which is solar cookers and gas for their confectionary and chips business and the cost of production has increased leaving them at risk of operating at loss as they cannot meet the breakeven point.
Butchery owner Mr. Chitumbura said they have to resort to using generator for the services but still their facing the challenges of acquiring fuel is the precious liquid is scarce and generators are not preferable at services station which leaves them with no option but to buy fuel at black market which is selling at high prices, dwindling the small profits.
A recent Economics graduate Munyaradzi Madzvanya from Jaru said the power outages are contributing to the price increases as the businesses are trying to cover the upsurge in their day to day operation costs.
Hospitals are not spared in this power outages and patients’ lives are at risk, as the labor ward, theatre , operations , scan and mortuary needs electricity to function well but with the power outages it is difficult for the hospitals to operate in full capacity .
This year we are expecting a reduced winter wheat yield because of the electricity outages and this will also affect the bread price and other basic commodities as farmers are not able to fully irrigate their crops due to the heavy load shedding schedule.
This calls for responsible authority to intervene as the business community in Murambinda is at risk of closing due to high operation costs, or alternative electricity sources must be incentivized by the government as to meet half way on the operation costs in Murambinda.
Also residents which preserve the electricity and encouraged to install solar systems as to ease on the load shedding, as the impact can be hard on the business community, power saving awareness should be prerequisite in the growth point and Buhera as a whole.
