Johannesburg spent last week voting on who should run the city. This week, a single substation in Mayfair is showing exactly what the next council is inheriting.
On Wednesday morning the SABC warned the public that some of its broadcasting services were disrupted (https://www.sabcnews.com/sabcnews/power-outage-disrupts-sabc-services/). The public broadcaster has been running on generator power since Sunday, and says that extended reliance on backup has affected its ability to keep normal transmission going across certain platforms.
That is the national broadcaster, in the country’s economic hub, knocked sideways by a local electricity fault.
What happened
A fire hit City Power’s Mayfair Substation early on Sunday 8 November. According to SABC News (https://www.sabcnews.com/sabcnews/mayfair-substation-fire-leaves-thousands-without-electricity/), the damage included seven affected cables, a transformer and electrical panels. City Power said heavy rain slowed the work and that it ruled out an alternative supply route because it could overload the remaining network.
The Citizen (https://www.citizen.co.za/news/mayfair-substation-fire-here-are-the-areas-affected-and-when-power-is-expected-back/) listed the affected areas: the SABC in Auckland Park, Garden City Hospital, and homes and businesses in Mayfair, Crown, Vrededorp, Brixton, Crosby, Pageview, Homestead Park and Amalgam.
Then it got worse. On Monday evening, shortly after teams began restoring supply at about 18:00, a second explosion knocked out the entire substation. Jacaranda FM quoted City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena (https://www.jacarandafm.com/news/news/city-power-reports-second-explosion-mayfair-substation/): “Unfortunately, this secondary explosion knocked out the entire substation, cutting electricity supply even to customers who were not initially affected.”
City Power says the cause of the second blast is unknown and will be investigated. It has warned that essential services, including health facilities and water supply, have been disrupted. And as of its latest updates, there is no restoration timeline.
Credit where due, questions where needed
City Power has been visible. It has apologised, named the affected areas and explained why it did not reroute supply. Choosing not to overload a fragile network is a defensible call. Keeping crews out of an unsafe site after an explosion is the right call.
But visibility is not the same as accountability. Residents are entitled to answers on four things:
- Why did restoration trigger a second explosion? The first fire was contained on Sunday. Something went wrong when the substation was re-energised on Monday. Was the equipment cleared as safe before switching on, and by whom?
- What is the state of the asset? When was the Mayfair Substation last maintained, and was its condition flagged before Sunday?
- Who protects critical customers? A hospital and a water supply sit on this substation. What backup arrangement exists for them, and who pays for days of diesel?
- When? “No ETR” is honest. But after three days, people need at least a planning date, even a provisional one.
Why this belongs in the coalition conversation
The parties now bargaining over Johannesburg’s mayoral chain will all promise to “fix service delivery”. Mayfair is the test case sitting on their desk before the first council sitting. Whoever controls the city will control City Power’s budget, its maintenance plan and its board.
So here is a fair ask for every party in the Joburg talks: before you divide up the mayoral committee seats, tell residents what your first 100 days look like for substations like Mayfair. Maintenance budgets, not slogans.
For the people of Brixton, Vrededorp and Pageview, the election result matters less this week than whether the lights, the taps and the hospital come back. They should not have to wait for a new mayor to find out why it took two explosions to get here.
Sources opened for this draft: SABC News 8, 10 and 11 Nov 2026; The Citizen; Jacaranda FM 10 Nov 2026.