Several suburbs in and around Johannesburg were hit by a widespread power outage just before 2pm on Friday.

City Power said in a statement that the outage was caused by a 400kV Eskom line that tripped.

“This power line feeds City Power Delta sub-station. Delta sub-station is one of [the] City Power intake points of Eskom electricity supply. Eskom has isolated on one of the two lines feeding Delta sub-station to do planned maintenance work. During the course of the maintenance the other line that was feeding City Power tripped.”

Eskom spokesperson Khulu Phasiwe said in a tweet earlier: “Eskom is aware of a major power outage that affects large parts of Midrand, Sandton and several areas in the northern suburbs of Joburg. Eskom technicians are on site to determine the cause of the outage. No estimated time of restoration at this stage.”

Power eventually returned after 3:15pm.

Business and home owners vented their frustration on social media earlier‚ directing a stream of tweets at City Power.

They reported power being down in areas including Craighall‚ Parkhurst‚ Hyde Park‚ Parkmore Randburg‚ Sandton‚ Midrand‚ Auckland Park and Braamfontein. (Businessday SA)

Update news