Heavy storms have damaged electricity infrastructure in parts of Johannesburg leaving a number of suburbs without power.

City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena said the storm uprooted poles and flooded transformer chambers, with toppled trees falling onto electricity lines and overhead cables causing power outages in some areas. 

“City Power is under tremendous pressure as we deal with the backlogs as a result of the heavy thunderstorms. We opened this morning with about 2,500 outage calls from customers affected across the City of Joburg,” Mangena said. 

He said the hardest-hit areas include Hursthill, Roodepoort, Midrand, Randburg and Lenasia, where heavy storms have damaged some electricity infrastructure including overhead cables.

Mangena said their response times were delayed both last night and this morning, as they struggled to “navigate through flooded streets, damaged roads, and trees blown into the roads”.

He has appealed for patience and co-operation from customers as they attend to the challenges across the city.

“We also expect lots of cable faults and equipment failures in days to come after the thunderstorms because most were exposed during the soil erosion that happened, some mini substations were submerged, others with moisture building in, which may only be seen days after the thunderstorms,” he said. 

Mangena said they have increased their resources in all the regions to work on the backlogs.

He urged residents to receive further updates from their councillors' WhatsApp groups or follow @CitypowerJHB on Twitter.

TimesLIVE