Residents of Johannesburg’s central business district will remain without electricity for another day, with power now expected to be restored only on Thursday evening.
City Power technicians are still working to repair damage to parts of the inner city grid that have been offline since Saturday.
The outage follows a fire at a central substation, which left Marshalltown and surrounding areas without electricity. During repair work, officials also discovered that key electrical components had been stolen from overhead power lines.
City Power says the damage has been worsened by ongoing theft and vandalism targeting infrastructure in the CBD, a recurring issue in recent years.
The utility is currently replacing both stolen and damaged equipment, but says the complexity of the repairs has delayed restoration efforts.
Power is now expected to be fully restored by around 8pm on Thursday.