While in the past, it was concerns about crime that gave South Africans sleepless nights, now it’s the non-stop bouts of load shedding.

A survey conducted by market research firm World Wide Worx shows that more than 70% of respondents – with the majority based in the Gauteng province, followed by the Western Cape – fret over Eskom’s two or so hours of intentional black-outs more than anything else. And this includes the high cost of fuel and increasing interest rates.

According to an SME South Africa report, to ease some of the pressure, SMEs should back up their systems at least once daily to protect businesses from the loss of critical data in the event of power outages. However, only 40% of companies do so.

Meanwhile, more than one out of every three SMEs do a back-up on a weekly or monthly basis only.

11 August 2015
Image: Gallo/GettyImages