Explosion at City Power central substation in Marshalltown

What happened

An explosion occurred on the night of Wednesday 14 October 2026 at City Power's Central substation in Marshalltown, Johannesburg CBD, as technicians were assessing repairs at the site. It followed a fire the night before, the fourth fire at the substation since April, which had caused multiple power outages across the inner city. The explosion set back plans to restore electricity to affected areas. City Power said it could no longer confirm its earlier target of restoring supply to most affected areas by midday on Thursday 15 October.

It said a revised restoration estimate would depend on the site being declared safe and on an assessment of the damage and the repairs required.

Contributing factors

The cause of the explosion was not reported. Related reporting says City Power's preliminary investigation of an earlier September fire at the same substation suggested theft and vandalism, and that the utility described sabotage and serious organised criminality targeting its infrastructure. Cable theft in the area has also damaged City Power's network.

Lessons learned

1. Treat repeated faults at a single critical substation as a pattern and investigate them together rather than as separate events.
2. Secure substations and cable routes against theft and vandalism, and monitor sites that have already been attacked.
3. Do not publish restoration timeframes until the site has been confirmed safe for repair crews.

More lessons on investigation and fleet-wide checks, theft, arson and site security, from every incident on the register.

Source

ewn.co.za