EMFULENI/MIDVAAL – Residents across the Emfuleni and Midvaal local municipalities were left without electricity on Thursday night after a fire broke out at the Risiville substation, triggering widespread power cuts.

Midvaal mayor Peter Teixeira confirmed the incident last night, saying the blaze on the Emfuleni side of the shared substation forced Midvaal to switch off supply to Risiville, Risi Small Farms, Glendonald and McKay Estates as a safety precaution. “Our teams are monitoring the situation closely and will restore supply once it is safe to do so,” he said.

In Three Rivers, residents received an urgent alert stating that the “main substation … exploded and is on fire”, with Emfuleni, Midvaal and the fire brigade all on scene. The message, sent by councillor Dalene Venter, warned that residents may be without power for the weekend.

Venter later circulated an update from Emfuleni’s Executive Director Ernie Strydom, who confirmed that a current transformer (CT) had exploded. “Further investigations will proceed during daylight. No estimated time of restoration at this stage,” Strydom said.

The Risiville substation has a troubled history — during a previous transformer explosion, repairs took nearly two weeks, leaving residents anxious about how long this latest outage may last.