City Power assessing damages caused by fire that plunged Joburg into darkness

City Power has promised to keep residents updated on the power outage which has caused major traffic congestion in an around the Johannesburg CBD.

Large parts of the CBD were plunged into darkness when a fire broke out at one of the main underground tunnels containing electricity infrastructure.

City Power officials were not able to go underground on Monday to repair the damage and restore electricity to the Johannesburg CBD, Booysens and Selby.

Firefighters managed to extinguish the fire and are now assessing the tunnels to make sure it’s safe for City Power technicians.

City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena said they are waiting for the ‘all clear’ before they go underground.

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“We are hoping to assess the extent of the damage to the cables and infrastructure and how much cost it will take to do the repairs.”

It is unclear what caused the fire, but City Power said investigations into the incident will continue.

There have been a number of fire-related incidents and attacks on the country’s infrastructure in recent months.

In January, a fire that broke out at Parliament affecting both the Old Assembly Wing and the National Assembly Wing of the buildings, which house the chambers of the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces (NCOP).

The man accused of starting the fire, Zandile Mafe appeared in the Cape Town Regional Court on Friday on charges arson and terrorism – his case has been postponed to May.

On the 23^rd of January, a fire also broke out at a storage facility at the Waterkloof Airforce Base in Pretoria while the Constitutional Court was also attacked by a 36-year-old suspect who destroyed windows and doors at the court using a hammer.

Police say they tried to stop the unknown man on arrival by firing warning shots, but he continued.

While the blaze at Waterkloof Airforce base was extinguished within an hour, it raised security worries in the wake of the recent attacks on Parliament and the Constitutional Court.

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