Johannesburg - City Power on Wednesday said their technicians were currently working to restore power to parts of Alexandra, following a fire that gutted a switching substation.
On Tuesday night, half of the Johannesburg township did not have power and areas between 2nd Avenue and 18th Avenue and from Vasco Da Gama and Selbourne streets were affected.
City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena said the work will involve putting in new infrastructure, including cables that were totally destroyed during the fire.
"Investigation is also underway to determine what caused the fire. There is also a suspicion of vandalism as the locks to the substation chambers were broken."
Mangena said the switching substation is over 50 years old, and a process was already underway to build a new one as part of upgrading electricity infrastructure across Alexandra. A total of R16 million has been budgeted this financial year for the upgrade of this substation.
"We are anticipating that the work to restore power would be completed by Wednesday evening around 9pm, should everything go accordingly.
"We apologise to the customers for any inconvenience caused to the residents by this incident," said Mangena.