Johannesburg - Johannesburg residents have been left livid in many suburbs as the city has been rocked by blackouts after four hours of load shedding.
Officials from Johannesburg’s City Power have been inundated with calls since Friday as they struggled to restore power to some of the affected suburbs.
On Saturday morning, City Power said there had been an explosion at the Brynorth Substation, which affected the Bryanston, Fourways and Douglasdale areas.
On Friday afternoon in Parkhurst, the area was rocked with a 7 hour blackout after lights failed to come back after the scheduled 4.30pm load shedding period. City Power confirmed there was a fault in that area too.
And on Saturday morning, Bryanston residents flooded social media with complaints.
Taking to Twitter, Joburg City Power said “there was an explosion in the Brynorth Substation which affects power supply in Morningside, khanyisa and surroundings, Operators are currently onsite”.
%%%twitter https://twitter.com/hashtag/Update?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Update #BrynorthOutage There was an Explosion in the Brynorth Substation which affects power supply in Morningside, khanyisa and surroundings, Operators are currently onsite^GR pic.twitter.com/ZlQAp1IJKQ
— @CityPowerJhb (@CityPowerJhb)
Joburg City Power said the affected areas included Bryanston, Douglasdale, Epsom Downs, Dimension Data and Kleve Hill Park. They also said the explosion happened on the Eskom side of the network.
%%%twitter https://twitter.com/hashtag/BrynorthOutage?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BrynorthOutageOur technicians are currently on site and ETR will only be given after technicians have determined the extent of the damage^GR pic.twitter.com/5jPwiuzSV5
— @CityPowerJhb (@CityPowerJhb)
But Bryanston is not the only Joburg suburb which has been affected by electric faults. City Power has been inundated with complaints with technicians running around all parts of the city trying to restore power.
Some of the places affected include Parktown, Roodepoort, Ruimsig, Ennerdale, Industria, Vorna Valley, Greenstone and Wynberg.
%%%twitter https://twitter.com/hashtag/UPDATE?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#UPDATE:Ridge, Houghton distributor tripped,affecting Parktown and surrounding. Technical team on https://t.co/0dJsld97aA ETR at the moment and we apologise for any inconvenience caused.^LP
— @CityPowerJhb (@CityPowerJhb)
UPDATE: City power operators are still on site busy with repair. We apologize for inconvenience cause by the outage.^JM https://t.co/NS2EoGvCEK
— @CityPowerJhb (@CityPowerJhb) December 6, 2019
City Power are swamped with calls and are on skeleton staff!https://t.co/rbDx0qnjGZ
— Dave Walker (@DaveWalker57) December 6, 2019
UPDATE:Distributor supplying Halfway Gardens Ext,Halfway House,Vorna Valley, EXT.21&56 tripped.Technicians have been allocated to work on restoration.We apologise for inconvenience caused.^LP
— @CityPowerJhb (@CityPowerJhb) December 6, 2019
%%%twitter https://twitter.com/hashtag/Update?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#UpdateDistributor supplying Florida and Florida Extensions tripped, technicians are onsite busy with restorations^GR
— @CityPowerJhb (@CityPowerJhb)
%%%twitter https://twitter.com/hashtag/Update?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Update #GreenstoneOutage There is a tripped device affecting power supply in Greenstone and surroundings, technicians are dispatched to work on power restorations^GR
— @CityPowerJhb (@CityPowerJhb)
%%%twitter https://twitter.com/hashtag/Update?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#UpdateDistributor supplying Wynberg and Bramley Park tripped, technicians are dispatched to work on power restorations^GR
— @CityPowerJhb (@CityPowerJhb)
City power Bryanston East 2B power came up and 10 minutes later tripped again, still down
— Peter gillies (@PeterGgcons) December 7, 2019
We've been asking you for an update on Bryanston 2B for hours and you blatantly ignore everyone. Do you have some form of issue with this area that you cannot inform people as to what's going on????
— Tasha D (@TashyD91) December 7, 2019
Why or why did i move to this forsaken Bryanston ???
— sipho (@sipho_siphobots) December 7, 2019
BRYANSTON Power Outage Update
— David Potter (@DavidCOJ102) December 7, 2019
Major explosion at the BryNorth substation. This is not good news and is just one of the dramas that load shedding brings with it. Blame who you like, but there is no new dawn. Hold tight ⚡️
%%%twitter https://twitter.com/CityPowerJhb?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@CityPowerJhbBryanston 2B out again? Please advise what in the hell is going on?
— Katy Harrison (@katyhphoto)
Bryanston East. Somebody forgot the “on” button again?
— sipho (@sipho_siphobots) December 6, 2019
Bryanston still has no power. pic.twitter.com/aot6InJjyq
— Lebo (@leboranks) December 6, 2019