While electricity has been restored to areas affected by the underground fire in Joburg CBD, City Power has urged those still without electricity to “log on calls”.
“While power has been restored, we appeal to customers who may still be off to please log on calls so that we can send the technicians to attend to those,” said City Power Spokesperson Isaac Mangena on Tuesday.
“Often during prolonged outages, our infrastructure is targeted for vandalism and theft which may lead to some customers not able to come back during restorations.”
The tunnel fire last week on Monday morning left parts of the CBD and surrounding areas without electricity after supply cables were burnt.
“By 21h00 on Monday evening 98% of the customers were switched on, with only one distributor with cable fault affecting a handful of customers within the CBD finalised this morning and we started loading customers gradually around midday to avoid overloading the circuit,” said Mangena
“Teams have worked around the clock since the fire broke out on Monday last week to ensure every customer has electricity.
“Our plans to restore power on Sunday as scheduled were disrupted by the rainy weather, forcing some of the work at Selby Substation and Central substation to go for an extra day.”
Affected areas included Newtown, Fordsburg, parts of Mayfair, Booysens, CBD, Selbu, Wemmer, Westgate, Village Deep, Troyville, Marshalltown, and parts of Jeppe.
“Most of the areas were restored before the end of last week, with only those east of the CBD and along the M2 Highway remaining until recently,” said Mangena.
“The investigation into the cause of the fire is still ongoing and at an advanced stage, and we are hoping to finalize the report soon.
Acting CEO Tshifularo Mashava thanked City Power customers affected by the outage “for their patience, understanding and cooperation”.
Mashava added: “We also extend our apologies for the disruptions caused to lives and businesses in the areas.”