Five arrested in connection with Joburg power outage on Monday morning

City Power engineers are working to restore power to parts of Edenvale after Monday morning’s unscheduled power cut, while the power supplier’s security guards caught five suspects who were allegedly responsible for the outage.

The five allegedly cut two medium voltage cables near the Edenvale hospital. The power outage affected several areas surrounding the hospital and one voting station at ward 81.

The men, which include three foreign nationals, were arrested in the early hours of Monday morning. City Power officials confiscated their cutting tools and a Nissan bakkie used to carry the cables.

The power utility’s technical teams were working to repair and replace the damaged cables.

Customers affected include:

• Edenvale hospital
• Rand Aid
• Sizwe hospital
• Tarantal Voting Station
• Elphin Lodge

“We are engaging the IEC about an alternative power supply to ensure voting is minimally affected,” said City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena.

No ETR has been given at this stage, but City Power hopes to restore power by the afternoon – if all goes according to plan.

“We will update customers as and when information is available. We apologise for the inconvenience caused by this,” said Mangena.

(Compiled by Narissa Subramoney)

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