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Business continuity is business survival in a powerless South Africa

The spate of rolling blackouts is causing havoc for South African businesses, its working population as well as the greater economy. Warnings of insufficient power supplies and infrastructural problems have been sounded for years.

According to Allen Smith, CEO of ContinuitySA, it is no use constantly arguing about who is to blame. "The fact is we have a problem and we need plans, a strategy and proactive corrective action."

This sentiment was echoed by the minister for Trade and Development, Alec Irwin, during a press briefing on 25 January in which he highlighted energy savings as a short- to medium-term strategy to help alleviate the present energy challenges.

Power outages in winter and traffic lights that rarely work are nothing new for South Africans as these are issues they have dealt with for years. Even in the corporate world, companies with business continuity plans have long catered for times when the electricity is out and for other minor disasters.

"Unfortunately, due to the high costs of ensuring their entire company would be able to work for extended periods without power, these plans only covered those areas of business considered critical," explains Smith. "Keeping your servers running and ensuring the integrity of your data is a critical function, keeping your admin offices running is not."

Therefore, while many companies have UPS power and backup generators for specific areas of the business, very few can keep their day-to-day operations running when Eskom switches off the power. The result is people sitting in the dark doing nothing, while being paid.

The effect is catastrophic, especially on smaller companies without deep pockets and on retailers who cannot make a sale without power to their computers, tills and credit card machines. The impact on morale and the long-term view of the country as a safe investment destination is even worse.

"We are not prepared for long term outages," states Smith. "And, unfortunately, simply blaming Eskom is not the answer. Even if there was suddenly a surplus of power tomorrow, the distribution infrastructure would still be old, creaking and unable to cope with demand."

Corporate infrastructure will also be feeling the pinch since few systems and networks are designed for constant fluctuations in the flow of electricity. Organisations could soon find their infrastructure damaged by the blackouts, which will cause another crisis in the medium term when they need to replace this equipment years ahead of schedule.

If business is to survive this crisis, each company will have to take matters into its own hands and ensure it makes provision for a lack of power as well as protecting its infrastructure. It is not a fair solution, but it is the only viable one for the next few years.

Smith says it will therefore be crucial for companies to conduct a business impact analysis with an additional focus on the power scenario to gain an accurate overview of their risk exposure. "Once you know how much trouble you could be in, you can act to effectively mitigate the risk and ensure the continuity of your business whether Eskom plays along or not."

Neglecting the country's infrastructure saved a substantial amount of money in the past, but is now going to cause tremendous losses. Government needs to deal with the issue by leading and acting, not having meetings; and businesses need to deal with it by re-examining their business continuity plans and adapting them to the realities of business in South Africa. Alternatively, we can all start packing for Perth.

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