According to Christo van der Rheede, Agri SA’s executive director, the lack of electricity has a disastrous impact on the quality and safety of agricultural products. He adds that the situation is unacceptable for a market that provides agricultural products to 15 million people daily.
In light of this, Agri SA appeals to the Johannesburg City mayor and council to do everything in their power to restore the electricity supply to the Johannesburg market and to put security measures in place to prevent the theft of cables in future.
“During power outages the market does not have the ability to supply power to the cold storage rooms. This has resulted in these storage rooms operating without cooling since 26 October 2021, with disastrous consequences to agricultural products. The value of stock in these cold rooms amounts to between R30 million and R61 million rand,” explains Van der Rheede.