Explosion and fire at Zola substation in Soweto

June 2024Published 28 Sept 2026Responsible editor: Chief Editor

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Companies named in the reporting of this entry (being named is not a finding of fault): Eskom

What happened

An explosion occurred and a fire broke out at the Zola substation in Soweto on 12 June 2024. Areas including Dobsonville Extensions 3 and 5, Jabulani, Mofolo North, Naledi, Tladi, Zola, Zondi, Emdeni, Moletsane and Old Dobsonville were affected. Service was restored in some parts, while Eskom said technicians were still working in Emdeni, Moletsane and Old Dobsonville. The fire caused minor disruption at health facilities in the affected areas, and a few operated on generators.

At the Zola community health centre a generator failed and a transformer was reported to need repair, with some services diverted. A published report said a probe into the fire pointed to vandalism, but it does not set out how the fire started. Eskom separately said there had been 40 vandalism incidents in Gauteng in the previous month, and described theft from substations as an ongoing problem.

Contributing factors

A probe was reported to point to vandalism. The article does not explain the mechanism of this fire, and wider theft of infrastructure is described as a standing problem rather than as a finding for this event.

Lessons learned

Treat substations in known vandalism hotspots as sites that need layered security, not guards alone.
Work with police on scrap-metal markets, because stolen components can leave equipment unprotected or faulted.
Plan for generator and local transformer failure at clinics when a substation outage follows an explosion or fire.

More lessons on theft, arson and site security, outages, backup supply and restoration, from every incident on the register.

Source

dailymaverick.co.za

Published 2026-09-28. Written from public reporting. Descriptive, not investigative. See the data accuracy disclaimer.

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