By Mapaballo Borotho
- Power has been restored to most Johannesburg suburbs affected by a major outage caused by veld fires beneath high-voltage power lines.
- City Power says the fires caused the Sebenza Substation to trip, leaving thousands of customers without electricity for several hours.
- The utility is urging residents not to start veld fires or burn vegetation near electricity infrastructure during the dry winter season.
Electricity has been restored to Johannesburg areas that were affected by a major power outage on Wednesday afternoon, 15 July 2026.
Several suburbs were left without electricity for hours after veld fires spread beneath high-voltage power lines, causing the Sebenza Substation to trip and disrupting power supply across the eastern corridor of Johannesburg.
The outages affected customers in Edenvale, Sebenza, Founders Hill, Longlake, Greenstone, Modderfontein, Rand Aid, Elphin Lodge, Sandringham Police Station, the National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS), 1st to 22nd Avenue between London Road and Joe Nhlanhla Road, Lombardy East, Kew, Lyndhurst, Savoy, Bramley, Bramley Park, Bramley View, Waverley, Melrose, Illovo, Inanda, Highlands North, River Park, Tsutsumani, Far East Bank, East Bank, West Bank, Extensions 7 to 9, Bezuidenhout Valley/Kensington Standby, RMU 1089 and RMU 1090, Bellevue Substation supply areas, Kensington Extension Standby, Bezuidenhout Valley East, Kensington Extension 3, Doornfontein Standby, Observatory North, Cyrildene Central, Langermann Drive, Bruma Standby, Dewetshof, Bruma, Denver, Benrose, Melville, Heriotdale and other surrounding areas supplied by the affected network.
City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena urged residents not to start veld fires or burn vegetation, especially beneath or near electricity infrastructure.
“This remains an increasing concern during the dry winter season, as veld fires pose a serious threat to substations, high-voltage power lines, transformers and other critical electricity infrastructure.
Such incidents can result in widespread power outages affecting thousands of homes, businesses and essential services, while also creating hazardous conditions that prevent technical teams from carrying out repairs until affected sites have been declared safe,” he said.
Mangena added that customers who are still experiencing power outages following the repairs will be assisted.
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