After explosions rocked the CBD, Joburg waits in the dark for power to return

Explosions, smoke and silence on the grid

Several parts of Johannesburg’s inner city remain without electricity days after separate explosions disrupted key substations and for now, residents and businesses are still in the dark with no confirmed timelines for restoration.

The incidents, which occurred earlier this week in New Doornfontein and near Bree Street, have exposed the fragility of ageing infrastructure in the CBD and raised fresh concerns about safety, maintenance and accountability in one of the city’s busiest economic zones.

City Power says restoration work has not yet fully begun at some sites, citing safety risks and delays in sourcing critical materials.

Bree Street: too dangerous to enter

At the Bree Street substation, City Power teams have been on site since early Saturday. However, technicians were initially unable to access the area due to extreme conditions left behind by the explosion.

Boiling transformer oil, heavy smoke, carbon fumes and intense residual heat made the site unsafe. There are also concerns that the blast may have caused structural damage to the building housing the substation.

Areas affected by the outage include Braamfontein, Newtown, Ferreirasdorp, Marshalltown and parts of Parktown neighbourhoods that are home to offices, student accommodation, cultural hubs and small businesses.

By Sunday afternoon, crews had begun cleaning operations, removing rubble, assessing damage to feeder boards and cabling, and siphoning oil from the damaged transformer.

City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena confirmed that hundreds of litres of oil are being removed to prevent environmental contamination and allow safe access to the equipment.

Because of the scale of the damage and preparation required, City Power has warned that restoration could take up to a week, with no exact estimated time of return provided.

New Doornfontein: materials still missing

In New Doornfontein, customers supplied by the Siemert Road substation remain without power after an explosion caused a structural collapse earlier in the week.

City Power’s preliminary findings ruled out a transformer explosion, but raised questions about the presence of a generator and flammable liquid tanks at the site, items that do not belong to the utility.

Repair work has been paused while the necessary materials are sourced. City Power says affected customers will be notified once supplies arrive and work can resume.

More outages add to inner-city strain

The situation is being compounded by additional outages in the CBD. The Microwave switching station has left Caroline and Banket streets without power, while a faulty cable at the Observatory substation is affecting Broadway Avenue and surrounding areas.

In both cases, City Power is still waiting for materials before restoration can begin.

Public frustration grows

On social media, frustration has been mounting. Business owners are warning of financial losses, residents are questioning safety standards, and many are asking how infrastructure in such a critical economic area could fail so dramatically.

For a city already grappling with load shedding and service delivery pressures, the prolonged outages have become another reminder of how vulnerable daily life becomes when core systems fail.

For now, the lights remain off and Johannesburg waits.