Edward Dzobo, a 53-year-old man, and his younger brother, whose entire livelihood depends on their sole handicraft of sewing at Odorkor Busia Junction, shared their struggles amid the ‘dumsor’ crisis.
In an interview with Adobea Asare on JoyNews’ Dumsor Diaries, they lamented how the recent intermittent power supply is severely impacting their work.
“I’m experiencing power cuts very well. When the power is off, our work also gets stuck. We don’t meet our customer’s needs,” Mr Edward Dzobo expressed.
His younger brother, 50-year-old Benjamin Dzobo, who works alongside him, recounted how he had to resort to improvisation to fulfill a client’s urgent order when dumsor disrupted their workplace.
“Sometimes it comes, it goes off and doesn’t come until the next day. So four days ago, it went off. So I had to run to East Legon to go and do some job for someone because the person needed it so much,” he explained.
They clarified that they have no alternative means to sustain themselves when the power is out, rendering them unable to sew.
“This is what we do to make a living. So when there is no power, you can’t do any work. We don’t have any other work to do attached to what we are doing now.
“We are just sewing. Things are stuck so even if you get a generator and you sew, how much will you charge your customer for the person to be able to pay?
“Even with electricity, when you charge, they complain. So when you add a generator, you buy fuel to sew, you have to add a little more cost to it and it is very disgusting,” Mr Edward Dzobo stated.
Benjamin Dzobo explained how they adapt to the intermittent power supply due to their reliance on electric machines.
He stated, “We use hand sewing machines but when the light goes off, you can sew [but] up to some point, you need the iron to iron, so if it gets to that point, you can’t do anything.”
Regarding the financial impact of the situation, Mr Edward Dzobo said, “Power cuts here in Ghana make us lose a lot of money, because in a week, at least, if you don’t have anything, you can have at least some thousand cedis.
“When power interruptions happen like that, you cannot have that money. You end up using what you have to buy food. After buying food, you don’t have anything again. Our financial status is not going up.”
The younger brother reiterated, “Now that the lights go off and don’t come, you can’t pinpoint what you get in a week. It’s a problem.”
“The way you have to feed your family is even more difficult for us. The children’s school, fees and all sorts of things make us stuck.”
Commenting on the need for a load-shedding timetable, Edward Dzobo remarked, “The load-shedding has to come so that everybody will know how to plan his/her things.”
“We want a load-shedding timetable to be out for us so that we can adjust ourselves. If it has to be a night thing, we can do the night then the next day, when the lights go off, we can sleep,” the 50-year-old man added.
Despite their loyalty, the brothers expressed disappointment whenever they couldn’t fulfill a customer’s order due to the power crisis, stating “You feel bad because that is your customer who has been given you a job all the time for you to get something into.”
Similarly, seamstresses at the Kantamanto market in Accra voiced their grievances about losing customers due to the power cuts.
“Sometimes our lights go off for three days. This retires our progress with work and we tend to lose customers,” one seamstress shared.
Another added, “It’s the electricity we use in doing our work so when it goes off, I have no other option than to go home. The power situation is really affecting us.”
“These things I sew are things I sell to take care of my family so it’s troubling when the lights go off,” another seamstress stressed.