A thousand customers have no electricity on Thursday due to cable theft in Klipspruit, Soweto, and at the nearby Nancefield hostel, says Eskom.

The theft took place on Wednesday and is the second in a week at the same spot, the energy utility said.

Technicians are on site to repair the damage but there is no clear indication as to when the power supply will be restored.

City Power in Johannesburg has been battling several outages in various areas.

A major area was plunged into darkness overnight when a feeder tripped at a substation, affecting Baragwanath hospital and the Rand Water Board, it said. 

On Thursday morning, "equipment fault and cable fault" hit the Christian de Wet substation serving the Wilgeheuwel area. This was said to be 96% restored by mid-morning.

Distributor trips were also reported at the JG Strydom substation, the Roosevelt Park/Emmarentia South distributor and the Gresswold/Sunningdale/Rembrandt Park area.

Meanwhile, Eskom is on Thursday expected to hear how much of an increase energy regulator Nersa will award it for the next three years. Eskom applied for price hikes of between 15% and 17%. The announcement is expected about 1pm.