Parts of Pretoria plunged into darkness as Mooikloof sub-station catches fire

MANY residents in Pretoria East were plunged into darkness after the Mooikloof sub-station caught fire on Wednesday night, triggering a trip at the Nyala in-feed station.

Municipal spokesperson Lindela Mashigo said the power outage affected the Wapadrand supply areas, parts of Moreleta Park, Mooikloof, surrounding farms, Pretoria hospital, Woodhill and mass lights in Plastic View informal settlement.

“An aerial view of the Mooikloof sub-station that caught fire last night is that a transformer burned down,” he said.

At the time of going to publication, the City’s technical team was still hard at work to assess the extent of the damage.

Local ward councillors went to the scene to gather first-hand information.

One of them, Malcolm de Klerk, confirmed to residents on social media that one transformer went up in flames and that the sub-station transmission team “will be looking at the state of the other transformers to check the health of them”.

According to him, one-third of the actual sub-station was burnt.

He added that further testing was required to check the viability of the rest of the sub-station.

MMC for utilities Themba Fosi, who joined the councillors, said the visit was meant to check on the extent of the damage done to the sub-station after the fire broke out that resulted in the explosion of a transformer.

“We are expecting the technical team to give us an assessment (and) from the assessment only then can we be able to give the output as to the ETR (estimated time for restoration) and the extent of the damage that has happened here,” he said.

Fosi added: “Councillors should be able to give residents updates during the course of the day up to the point of power restoration so that our residents can be comforted in knowing that something is happening. We are putting all hands on deck in making sure that we expedite the restoration.”

Some residents, however, vented their frustrations on social media, wanting to know about the ETR.

“The DA must just move out of office once,” one of them posted on X in reaction to the City’s message about the power outage.

One social media user asked: “Any further updates on the power outage?

“Do we have an ETR and know what the damages is?”

One resident, however, expressed gratitude to all the firefighters who worked hard to extinguish the fire at the sub-station.