Attorney Michael de Broglio on: South Africa, Law, Politics, Attorneys, Sport, Photography, Technology, Gadgets, Media, Crime, Road Accidents Fund,
Divorce, Maintenance, Personal Injury, Medical Negligence
One of the first principles of doing business in South Africa is to learn to put up with a lot. I do my very best to run a first-class operation, by the best standards, but it amazes me sometimes that clients don’t seem to realise some of the things one is up against. If our telephone lines are down for a few hours, after 20 years in business, we will get e-mails from people asking whether our firm has closed down! They don’t seem to realise that the same problems they read about in the news, or hear on the radio, affect our business also.
We have a UPS back-up system, although we have back-up telephone lines, telephone lines with both companies, spare Internet facilities and solar power for hot water but it does not seem to be enough! We lost our Telkom lines for about three months last year before we moved to Neotel and Telkom really, to put it simply, could not care about fixing them. Like all businesses we have to put up with the Eskom power cuts on a regular basis and two weeks ago we had the City of Johannesburg apparently lose a piece of equipment that led to a 400 volt surge being put through out offices. That took our offices offline for the entire day on a Thursday. When you factor in about 70 plus staff members at 8 hours a day that is 560 man hours minimum that was lost in just one day.
Unfortunately, in South Africa you have to learn to put up with things like this, and accept that you are going to pay your staff for thousands of hours’ work, over any given year, where they will not actually be working. There are certainly certain things that they can do when the power goes off, but there are others that they can’t and to a large extent the time is lost. Sadly however, it is not just the time that is lost. It is the money that is spent on calling electricians, it will be the time and money that is spent on repairing equipment damaged during the surge (approximately R200 000) and of course it will be profits lost in terms of clients who would have called in as a result of our adverts during that time, who will now assume that we don’t answer the phones, and try their luck elsewhere. Doing business in South Africa really requires patience and back-up plans and accepting that the best back-up plans are not going to work for every situation. It is a reminder that we live in a third-world country and those of us in the legal business should only be too grateful that we do not have to compete with others internationally because those in manufacturing do have to, and it must border on impossible with our infrastructure.
Posted by Michael de Broglio on Tuesday 19-May-15
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Comments
Sinead said:
on Monday 25-May-15 09:01 AM
Lol @ David... It's rather disappointing though.
Lizanne said:
on Tuesday 19-May-15 01:35 PM
What a disgrace! Our Country has to put up with so much and we have to give and give and give...but this is what we get in return. Everything is supposed to get better by the day, instead it is getting much worse. What are our kids going to have to deal with one day.
Catherine said:
on Tuesday 19-May-15 01:34 PM
"3rd World countries" Last week when the breakfast team in 94.7 were broadcasting in USA one morning just when they were about to go on air, apparently the power went off. Darren then commented everyone in studio was running around including the manager but non of the South Africa team moved an inch because they are so accustomed to load shedding that to them it's a normal.
everyday thing.
That is how terrible service is in third word countries.
Clare said:
on Tuesday 19-May-15 12:47 PM
I think this is just madness, things are never getting better in this country and then you get an advertisement that other countries think Load shedding is awesome yet they have no idea what hectic times we live in..
Juliet said:
on Tuesday 19-May-15 08:56 AM
I would love to just live in a first world country dealing with first world problems! So tired of working all day, then sitting in traffic from robots being out due to load shedding, and even worse then sitting in a dark quiet house with a baby because there is no electricity! And the levies don't decrease for services not rendered, oh no, they just keep being increased! For fear of me one day becoming the first female South Africa president, I will keep my comments polite about the current state of affairs in this country.
Bianca said:
on Tuesday 19-May-15 08:36 AM
Our leading "service providers" in our country are absolutely shocking, you are almost guaranteed that something wont work the way it's supposed to every single day. The worst thing is that we are so used to telephone lines not working or not having electricity that it has become a daily routine. I cannot fathom how other countries can live day to day without an interruption in their electricity, but not us, our country is run by a bunch of morons.
latoya said:
on Tuesday 19-May-15 08:31 AM
South Africa serveice is pathetic and each and everyday there is something new to complain about
Marisa said:
on Tuesday 19-May-15 07:38 AM
i agree with David, but we see that they are destroying businesses but the people who vote for them think that it will improve.. we are all living in a lie and some are to blind to see it, for example, Telkom reads "Together we move SA forward" but what we read is "Prepare for Load shedding"
Daria said:
on Tuesday 19-May-15 07:33 AM
When it comes to South Africa having anything to do with internet or phone lines we are by far the worst. our service providers are shocking and do nothing to help.
Johannesburg based attorney specializing in personal injury matters including Road Accident Fund claims and medical negligence matters. My interests include golf, reading and the internet and the way it is constantly developing. I have a passion for life and a desire for less stress!
