Parts of Joburg plunged into darkness
Johannesburg City Power says several suburbs are without power due to cable theft at a power station on Friday.
Cable thieves hit Johannesburg’s Central Substation – causing extensive power outages.
City Power’s technical assistance are trying to restore power amid the biting cold in the city.
Spokesperson, Sol Masolo is appealing for patience.
“A 33 KV cable was stolen last night and as it they stole it caused damage to one of the transformers of the substation. We then have a problem of having to replace the stolen cable and fixing the transformers. We manged to restore it, but we just experienced another technical problem with the transformer that was fixed.”
Florida, Florida Lake, Maraisburg, Hamburg, Delarey, Industrial North and the surrounding areas are without electricity.
In a separate incident, a distributer at the Olivedale substation tripped on Friday morning.
“We have sent a technical team into the substation. They are busy as we speak trying to extent of the problem.”
The affected areas are Northwold, Sharonlee, Strydom Park, Olivedale.
The City’s MMC of Environment and Infrastructure Services, Nico de Jager, blamed ageing infrastructure for the ongoing power outages.
#JHBPower Johannesburg City Power's Sol Masolo says power has been restored to all the areas that were affected by the power interruption that resulted from a cable theft incident at the central substation.
— Jacaranda News (@JacaNews) July 6, 2018
#JHBPower Masolo: We are busy finalising the situation at the Olivedale substation. We think that we should be able to restore power to the remaining suburbs before the end of the day.
— Jacaranda News (@JacaNews) July 6, 2018