Explosion and fire at Zola substation in Soweto

What happened

An explosion and fire broke out at the Zola substation in Soweto on 12 June 2024. Power was lost in areas including Dobsonville Extensions 3 and 5, Jabulani, Mofolo North, Naledi, Tladi, Zola, Zondi, Emdeni, Moletsane and Old Dobsonville. Supply was restored in some areas the same day, while Eskom said technicians were still working in others, including Emdeni, Moletsane and Old Dobsonville. Health facilities in the affected areas had minor disruptions, and a few ran on generators.

At the Zola community health centre, a generator failed and was being repaired, and a transformer was also reported to need parts that had been ordered. A published report said a probe pointed to vandalism, but the article did not set out the findings of that probe.

Contributing factors

The published headline said the probe pointed to vandalism. The article also described wider theft and vandalism of electricity assets in Gauteng. It did not state that armed syndicates or other individuals caused this fire.

Lessons learned

1. A substation fire can disrupt nearby health services, so backup generation and planned diversion of urgent care need to be ready.
2. Where vandalism is only reported as the direction of a probe, operators should keep that separate from confirmed findings.
3. Partial restoration should be tracked by area so remaining outages are not treated as resolved.

Source

dailymaverick.co.za