Joburg suburbs hit by power outage

Image: Felix Lipov/123RF STOCK PHOTO Large parts of City of Johannesburg are without electricity following an abrupt power cut in the afternoon.

Several suburbs in and around Johannesburg were hit by what appeared to be a widespread power outage just before 2pm on Friday.

City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena said just after 2pm that the cause of the blackouts was still being investigated.

Business and home owners vented their frustration on social media‚ directing a stream of tweets at City Power.

@CityPowerJhb on Twitter

They reported power being down in areas including Craighall‚ Parkhurst‚ Hyde Park‚ Randburg‚ Sandton‚ Midrand‚ Auckland Park and Braamfontein.

Eskom warned earlier in the day that the risk of load-shedding continued - but there was no immediate indication that the outages reported across Johannesburg were related to load-shedding.

Eskom Spokesperson on Twitter

"The power system ... remains tight and vulnerable and while Eskom is making every effort to limit load-shedding‚ it could be implemented at short notice should there be a shift in plant performance‚" Eskom said earlier.

This is a developing story and will be updated as more details become available.