Johannesburg - Overnight electricity maintenance work in Johannesburg plunged the central business district into darkness on Monday night, with the main street lights and many buildings’ electricity cut off.
At exactly 10pm on Monday there was a power outage in “the city that never sleeps”, affecting streets including Bree, Jeppe, Kerk, Plein, Von Brandis and President.
Read: No winter power cuts, vows Eskom
The power stayed off until the early hours, being restored at around 3.30am on Tuesday.
The power cut came as a surprise to African News Agency sources, although Johannesburg’s power utility - City Power - had in fact made an announcement on its website on April 26 about the planned maintenance work.
According to City Power, the outage was to begin at 10pm on Monday and last until 6am on Tuesday.
“The power interruption is necessary to do essential maintenance work on our network, which is part of our programme of constantly striving to provide better service,” City Power said in its public announcement.
Those who were caught unawares by the power outage were shocked since Eskom this month assured the nation that there would be no load-shedding this winter, as the power utility reaches new milestones in generation capacity.
Students living at The Yards residence on Rissik Street in downtown Johannesburg told ANA that their night studies had suddenly been cut short.
Shirley Molekane, a University of Johannesburg fourth-year geography student, said she had been forced to wrap up her studying prematurely on Monday.
“It (the power outage) disturbed me. I was busy with my assignments that are due soon. Now I have work piled up on today’s work,” said Molekane, who was also not too happy to have to walk down seven dark flights of stairs during the outage.
City Power has published announcements about other planned overnight maintenance work for areas in Johannesburg. The three suburbs affected are Karzene on May 20, Kloofendal on May 26, and Moffat on May 28.
ANA