JOHANNESBURG - Stage 4 power cuts are costing the economy R1-billion per day.
That's according to Business Unity South Africa.
Last week, the power utility confirmed that major maintenance work is starting next month, which will increase the chances of more power cuts.
Busa's Happy Khambule says this will have a significant negative impact on small businesses that rely on festive season trade.
''The biggest problem is that the erratic nature of loadshedding scheduling, businesses arent able to prepare...then you're unable to plan your production. A lot of small businesses have started to close down as loadshedding stages increase...small businesses are affected as they don't have enough resources, stage 4 gives us a lot of about a billion per day, when we have those kind of stages"))