THE Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Trade Portfolio Committee Chairperson, Senator Lindiwe Ngwenya says the issue of power outages is now out of hand and costing businesses a lot.
This was shared by the senator on Monday during the ministry of commerce, industry and trade’s first quarter performance debate.
Ngwenya stated that she wanted to know if the people who borrowed money under micro financing were able to pay back the funds.
She said currently, there were informal traders who were cooking and selling food items who were being affected by power outages which might contribute to them failing to pay back the money.
She said the power outages were now frequent, stating that there were many informal traders who were being affected by this. Ngwenya said there were many businesses being affected by load shedding, asking the ministry if they could engage with the relevant ministries on the issue.
“This is no longer sudden, but it is now way out of hand. Can the ministry also find investors who can generate electricity for the country so that the projects and businesses can proceed without being affected,” she said. She also enquired if the ministry could not find funding for the Sidvokodvo Industrial area as Matsapha was congested and there was no more land for development. She said there was a railway line at Sidvokodvo, which could come in handy as foreign investors could use the place for business ventures.
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