We could not write this newsletter without acknowledging the elephant in the room: the huge trials that all South Africans, including timber treatment companies, are experiencing as national power cuts continue.
As a society, we have moved from a state of frustration to endurance. We’re knuckling down to cope for the long haul, continually putting out feelers for solutions although our hopes feel worn: the terms of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s recent “state of disaster” announcement inspired little confidence that the solutions widely acknowledged to be necessary will be instituted anytime soon.
In our own industry, businesses are affected by the euphemistically termed “loadshedding” to varying degrees, while the effects on our market are having an impact on us all.
Timber treatment plants in remote areas have always had to generate their own electricity, so power cuts do not affect their operating hours. Smaller treaters are shifting their working hours to the times that electricity is available, awkward and exhausting though this may be.
Larger businesses face more of a problem, especially if they dry their timber themselves and don’t have boilers. Inevitably they face higher costs as they must find alternative energy supplies.
Meanwhile, agriculture, which is one of our key markets, is suffering as farmers are now unable to freeze as much produce as previously. This comes on top of the problems with Transnet and restrictions brought on by increasingly stringent EU regulations.
There’s no point in falling into an apocalyptic despair. We still have control over our thoughts; we can stop our hearts from hardening; we can keep the internal light on.
The result is that farmers are exporting less produce than in previous years and are buying fewer treated poles as a result.
We’re all finding ways to work around the problem, from renting or buying generators to installing expensive PV systems, or buying batteries to store municipal power during the hours it’s available to tide us over when it’s not. This is what Dolphin Bay has done at our Sabie factory, as one aspect of the extensive remodelling project (see story here) that is close to complete.
These are the individual solutions. It’s when we focus on the big picture that we see the biggest problem: the sense of insecurity for South Africa’s future. Our country is already facing so many challenges, from social insurgencies to political infighting, policy uncertainty and a weakening currency. Now, we’re experiencing the systematic failures of key infrastructure too. How much more can we endure?
And yet, South Africans still have hope. We remain good-hearted and, by and large, friendly to one another. Rather than looking downwards at our feet, we seem to be looking at the horizon, scanning for glimmers of hope and forgetting how far we’ve been walking to reach the promised land.
It’s only when we look down that we see the thorns and thistles and remember the distance we’ve covered. Our government should be very wary that we don’t all start looking down.
For all this foreboding, we believe that there is something special, perhaps mystical, keeping things together in our country – something preventing the proverbial mob from turning up with pitchforks to kill the king. This not to say that it couldn’t happen; it’s just remarkable that it hasn’t yet.
Retaining our goodwill and our vision makes it so much less likely.
The Dolphin Bay team knows it’s a privilege to do business with our customers. The relationship rests on trust which must be continually built and reinforced. It should be the same for our political leaders.
We hold no illusions: we need a new government. Our president talks of a new dawn, but it’s not going to happen with the ANC in power. This is not a radical statement: we’re adding our voices to the thousands of commentators who have said the same thing.
There’s no point in falling into an apocalyptic despair. We still have control over our thoughts; we can stop our hearts from hardening; we can keep the internal light on.
The bottom line is that we remain optimistic sceptics. If we could overcome the challenge of bad governance, the massive potential of this country could be harnessed. Despite all the thorns along the way, we’re holding out for such a future.
- MORE THAN JUST BUSINESS - December 9, 2024
- GLOBALISATION GIANT CONTINUES TO ROAR - December 9, 2024
- PAINSTAKING FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT BUILDS RESILIENCE - December 9, 2024
Comments are closed.