Silvertondale outage: City details cable faults after days of disruption

Businesses in Tshwane’s Silvertondale industrial area are slowly getting clarity on the causes of the prolonged power outage that left many firms without electricity for several days.

The City of Tshwane said in a statement issued on Friday morning that the outage was caused by faults on an underground cable and damage to a mini-substation, which made the problem difficult to trace and repair.

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The disruption follows a week of mounting frustration among business owners, who have been left without power since Friday, 30 January. This has led to cancelled orders, rising generator costs and growing anger over missed restoration deadlines.

In its latest update, the municipality said several damaged sections on the same cable complicated fault-finding.

To speed up the process, repair teams first focused on fixing the mini-substation near Dekraas and Siersteen, which allowed electricity to be restored to most customers.

The city said the exploded substation was replaced and cables were reconnected and energised.

However, once supply was partially restored, technicians discovered another hidden fault affecting eight surrounding blocks, including Mosaic, Siersteen, Kroon en Seuns, Rustic, Skilder, Brainly and Fascia.

One fault was repaired, but further testing revealed more damage that required additional excavation.

Repair work was also delayed by access problems along part of the cable route on private property. According to the statement, access was later granted after discussions with the owner and support from the local industrial community, although some working time was lost.

The city thanked affected businesses and residents for their patience and said teams remained on site to restore full supply as quickly as possible.

The update follows days of complaints from business owners during the outage.

Moneyweb reported earlier that companies in Silvertondale were still without power on Wednesday, 4 February, after repeated faults and accidental damage to underground infrastructure flooded repair trenches and delayed progress.

Promised restoration times were missed, and by late afternoon that day, no clear estimate was available for the return of electricity.

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