Johannesburg’s City Power says a blaze at the Mayfair Substation early on Sunday morning, which left thousands of residents, businesses and critical facilities in areas including Mayfair, Auckland Park, Brixton and surrounding areas without electricity, is being assessed.

The utility says multiple technical teams and engineers are working to assess the extent of the damage, which includes seven affected cables, a transformer and electrical panels.

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Multiple technical teams and engineers remain on site at the Mayfair Substation, cleaning carbon residue from critical infrastructure damaged during today’s early morning blaze, assessing affected
cables and testing the transformer and electrical panels to determine the extent of the damage and repairs required.
^NH

— @CityPowerJhb (@CityPowerJhb) November 8, 2026

City Power says heavy overnight rainfall has slowed restoration work, while an alternative supply route was ruled out over fears it could overload the remaining network.

City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena says gradual restoration is expected to begin on Monday, provided the damaged infrastructure is repaired and confirmed safe for operation.

“The outage is affecting some of the critical customers, including the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) in Auckland Park, Garden City Hospital in Mayfair, as well as businesses and residential customers in Mayfair, Crown, Vrededorp, Brixton, Crosby, Pageview, Homestead Park and Amalgam. We understand the impact this is having on our customers.”

Reporting by Culvin Mabasa