South Africa’s small firms take strain during severe power cuts
SOUTH AFRICA'S small businesses, still reeling from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and squeezed by inflation at a five-year peak, are now under further strain during the worst power cuts in over two years. Struggling state electricity company Eskom implemented so-called "Stage 6" outages, meaning at least six hours of power cuts a day for most South Africans, for the first time since December 2019 on Tuesday and again on Wednesday. Business owners in Johannesburg's sprawling Soweto township said they were feeling an immediate impact as the power cuts were eating into their daily sales. "If we (normally) sell…