Cape Town plunged into darkness

050910 Electricity pylons carry power from Cape Town's Koeberg nuclear power plant July 17, 2009. South Africa will need 20 gigawatts (GW) of new power generation capacity by 2020 and would require double that amount a decade later to meet rising demand, the country's power utility said September 7, 2009. Picture taken July 17, 2009. REUTERS/Mike Hutchings (SOUTH AFRICA ENERGY BUSINESS)

050910 Electricity pylons carry power from Cape Town's Koeberg nuclear power plant July 17, 2009. South Africa will need 20 gigawatts (GW) of new power generation capacity by 2020 and would require double that amount a decade later to meet rising demand, the country's power utility said September 7, 2009. Picture taken July 17, 2009. REUTERS/Mike Hutchings (SOUTH AFRICA ENERGY BUSINESS)

Published Sep 28, 2011

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Cape Town experienced a widespread power outage on Wednesday morning, the city said.

“This is an Eskom issue, it is not the city's systems that caused the outage,” City of Cape Town spokesman Solly Malatsi said.

News 24 reported that residents of the Peninsula, Milnerton, Mitchells Plein and Noordhoek were without electricity.

Cape Town's central business district was also affected.

Eskom could not immediately be reached for comment.

Workers lined the pavements during the blackout

.

"The lights went out at about 11am," an office manager said while smoking a cigarette on a pavement on Loop Street.

"Someone obviously forgot to pay Eskom something."

The owner of a fast food outlet on Long Street said he switched on his generator when the blackout hit.

"I learned my lesson a few years ago when we had rolling blackouts in the summer. I lost a lot of money. This time I was prepared."

The city's streets were clogged with traffic at noon, with many robots out of action too. -

Sapa

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