Cape Town, South Africa – Five years after Corner Cafe opened just meters from the South African Parliament Building in Cape Town's CBD, it has become a popular meeting place for politicians, academics and other locals. I was.
But less than two years after the COVID-19 pandemic shut down businesses in the area, shutting down many stores, cafe owner Prisca, who works up to 12 hours and employs three people. Horonga states that she faces another existential crisis.
Starting in 2022, there will be rolling blackouts or load shedding of up to 10 hours at a time across the country.
"They have to wait for power to be restored... they keep losing customers because they can't afford generators," her 32-year-old Holonga from Zimbabwe told Al Jazeera.
In the same district, hairdresser Nadine Iqani, who has been working as a hairdresser for 15 years, has similar concerns. For the past 10 years, she's managed to adjust her schedule to accommodate customers despite power outages, but last year things got worse, she says.
"She's making a third of her pre-load shedding income and customers are yelling at her," she told Al Jazeera. "It's just a nightmare... Working long hours, including weekends, to accommodate clients."