Shopping mecca in the dark

A manager of one of the centre's restaurants said: “We had to cut back on our orders because there was no business. When the power went out, people left.

“It was the worst month in our business history.”

With winter looming and Eskom's confirmation last week of the second phase of load shedding lasting until July, some restaurants said they feared the worst.

Liberty Property's Dorcas Ledwaba said the reason for Sandton City's frequent outages earlier this year was because it is a direct customer of Eskom.

She said that the company had not experienced the same extent of problems in its other malls.

Where it was eco-friendly and safe, Liberty has allowed some stores to install their own generators and batteries to run debit card payment machines.

“We are lobbying discussions to collectively contribute into minimising power use,” she said.

Source: Sunday Times

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