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April 25 - As South Africans across the board are experiencing power cuts
brought on by Eskom, the country's electricity supplier, and the economy is
being affected in more ways than one, even hotels and casinos are feeling the
pinch.
In an interview with Reuters last week, the CEO of Sun International
in South Africa, David Coutts-Trotter said that the power crisis was indirectly
affecting the chain, and fuelling costs that needed to be spend on generators
and other backup equipment.
"We're being affected because I think the economy as a whole is being
affected," he said. "Indirectly I think that our customers are being affected
negatively, and that's affecting our business."
Sun International runs four resorts and thirteen casinos across South Africa,
including the world-famous Sun City. In addition, the chain has started a
successful expansion into the rest of Southern Africa, including a 49 percent
interest in Nigeria's Federal Palace Hotel Property on Victoria Island.
Because of the power crisis in South Africa, the group has been forced to
invest millions in generators so that operations could run smoothly, despite the
problems. Due to these purchases, Coutts-Trotter said that the group was "not
too bad... we're okay... we can keep going."
Although Sun International has set aside three to four million Rand to spend
on generators, the CEO feels that these estimates are likely to increase, saying
that in some areas, the group has had to fork out up to R7 million on one
property for emergency backup power.
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