{"id":878413,"date":"2026-10-06T09:25:24","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T07:25:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=878413"},"modified":"2026-10-06T09:25:26","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T07:25:26","slug":"9000-people-in-one-of-south-africas-biggest-cities-sitting-in-the-dark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/energy\/878413\/9000-people-in-one-of-south-africas-biggest-cities-sitting-in-the-dark\/","title":{"rendered":"9,000 people in one of South Africa&#8217;s biggest cities sitting in the dark"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>About 9,000 residents in Pretoria are still without power following a week of disruptions caused by a fire at the Watloo Substation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The City of Tshwane said it is actively working to restore electricity to communities served by the Murrayfield and Koedoespoort substations, which are experiencing multiple cable faults due to the fire at the Watloo Substation and disruptions at the Njala Infeed Substation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>An explosion occurred at the Watloo Substation in Tshwane on September 29, leading to power interruptions across various parts of the city.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This incident has affected supply to several primary substations and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At that time, the City of Tshwane reported that emergency services were addressing the fire at the substation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>City spokesperson Lindela Mashigo said that technicians had been dispatched to assess the damage and determine the necessary repairs to restore power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cPlease stay clear of electrical infrastructure, treat all power lines as live and keep appliances unplugged until supply is safely restored,\u201d said Mashigo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe City apologises for the inconvenience and will provide further updates.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, a week later, parts of the city are still without electricity. On 29 September, the City of Tshwane reported that the following primary supply stations were off:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Watloo\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Wingate<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Heartherly<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Mooikloof<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Wapadrand\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>CSIR<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Scientia<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Highlands<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Willows<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Lynnwood\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Villerria<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Teams are working around the clock, although faults involving breaks in the cables are taking longer to locate and repair,&#8221; city spokesperson Lindela Mashigo said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the Koedoespoort supply area, East Lynne, Jan Niemand Park, and the surrounding areas are currently without power, affecting 47 medium-voltage units.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mashigo reported that teams temporarily restored power to 20 units earlier on Monday; however, the network tripped again while technicians were attempting to reconnect the remaining 27 units.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Frustration grows amongst residents<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a  data-lightbox=\"post-image\" href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Cilliers-Brink-e1791270917179.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Cilliers-Brink-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-701411\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Teams are now tracing further faults to allow repairs and ensure the network can be safely restored,&#8221; said the city spokesperson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the Murrayfield supply area, parts of Murrayfield, Watermeyer, Willow Park Manor, and La Montagne have been affected by power outages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Of the 30 medium-voltage units affected, five were restored between Saturday and Sunday, leaving 25 units still without power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Repairs to a main feeder cable are currently underway, which could potentially restore electricity to an additional 13 units, contingent upon successful testing and the absence of any further faults.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mashigo said that the city understands residents&#8217; frustration regarding the prolonged outages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;The city sincerely apologises for the prolonged interruption and understands residents&#8217; frustration. Allowing teams to work safely and without interference is essential to completing repairs as quickly as possible.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>DA Tshwane mayoral candidate Cilliers Brink said that residents in Murrayfield, La Montagne, Silverton, and other parts of Ward 41 are still facing power outages, with approximately 6,000 homes without electricity.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Brink said that although all cable faults caused by the Njala outage and subsequent switching have been repaired, power restoration is being delayed due to a shortage of switching teams and system operators.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Careful management of the switching process is necessary to avoid overloading the power supply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In East Lynne and Jan Niemandpark, around 3,000 people are without power as repair teams work on a fourth cable fault, according to Brink.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cCable theft during the outage has caused further setbacks. Once repairs are completed, the City can proceed with switching power back on,\u201d said Brink.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cMany households elsewhere in Tshwane are waiting for smaller outages to receive attention while the City focuses on the larger failures. They also deserve answers and assistance.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Brink said the party has asked the City Manager to deploy additional switching teams and system operators to affected areas and use qualified contractors to increase capacity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Residents in parts of Pretoria are still without power after a week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":776269,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"posted","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"2107371794139169025","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2228056631348069","_sma_instagram_post_id":"18077450126412298","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9874],"tags":[22150,22278,26713],"class_list":["post-878413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energy","tag-electrcity","tag-the-city-of-tshwane","tag-watloo-substation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/127"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=878413"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878413\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":878437,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878413\/revisions\/878437"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/776269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=878413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=878413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=878413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}