Mooikloof substation fire cuts power to parts of Pretoria East

May 2017Published 27 Oct 2026Responsible editor: Chief Editor

SignificantThermal / fireProvisionalNext update 27 Oct

Estimated damageEstimated by the register's adjusterHow? Know the real figure?

supply cut for about •• daysShown in the record →Full estimate

From the recordRoot cause

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

What happened

On Tuesday 23 May 2017, The Citizen (Rekord) reported that a substation at Mooikloof, in the Pretoria East area of Tshwane, had caught alight. The fire left residents of Mooikloof, Pretorius Park, parts of Garsfontein and parts of Moreleta Park without electricity. Tshwane emergency services said it was not yet clear what caused the fire. The fire brigade attended to put out the fire. The substation was reported to be newly built. Tshwane metro apologised to residents for the inconvenience. The report does not state whether anyone was injured or whether any evacuation took place.

Contributing factors

Not confirmed. An emergency services spokesperson said it was unclear whether overloading was the cause. The metro's electricity department was to investigate.

Lessons learned

Newly built substations should have loading, protection settings and connections verified during commissioning and early operation.
Emergency responders and the utility should give residents clear, consistent information about the cause and restoration timeline during an outage.
Utilities should publish the findings of fire investigations so that operators and the public can learn from them.

More lessons on electrical protection and isolation, outages, backup supply and restoration, emergency response and public communication, from every incident on the register.

Source

citizen.co.za

Published 2026-10-27. Written from public reporting. Descriptive, not investigative. See the data accuracy disclaimer.

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