Soweto residents to endure cold weather after substation exploded

Hundreds of Soweto residents will have to content with the cold weather for a while after a fire broke out a substation in Zola on Wednesday, morning causing an outage.

This happened as freezing temperatures continued to sweep through Gauteng.

According to Ward 51 councillor, Bhekukwenza Mngadi, the fire broke out about 08.30am in the morning.

He said this was after three explosions that sounded like a bomb went off.

He said the areas affected by the power outage are Dobsonville, Emndeni, Jabulani, Moletsane, Mofolo North, Naledi, Tladi, Zola and Zondi.

Eskom said they were working with City of Joburg Emergency Management Services (Cojems) to extinguish the fire. The power utility said it was not yet known when electricity would be restored.

“We are working with the fire department to extinguish the fire so that our technicians can conduct an investigation and assess the extent of the damages. We apologise for the inconvenience this causes,” reported Eskom. 

According to Joburg EMS spokesperson, Robert Mulaudzi, the entire substation has burned down and they don't why the fire began.