Powerless in the city — How Johannesburg’s electricity crisis is breaking its people

When our months-long data investigation showed that there were almost 100,000 reported outages in nine months and more than 5,000 serious breakdowns in three months, we set out to find out what that means by going to the worst-affected areas. 

Read more in Daily Maverick: Joburg power crisis — almost 100,000 reported outages in 9 months, 5,126 very serious

Read more in Daily Maverick: City in the dark — Power cuts choke Joburg’s once-vibrant small businesses

Johannesburg residents describe life on the brink — where power outages stretch for days, crime surges in the dark, and survival means diesel, firewood, or luck. From cold coffee machines to spoiled meat, from uncharged oxygen tanks to looted infrastructure, Joburgers tell Daily Maverick what it’s like to live without power.  They’ve stopped freezing food. They sleep in pyjamas outside waiting for technicians. They walk to substations themselves. In this Johannesburg, being powerless is often literal. City Power’s infrastructure is collapsing. Residents are paying — with cash, lost income, and their safety. These testimonies capture a city dimming by the day. Where power was once plentiful, now electricity is a luxury for many.  

Alex

We started in Alex, where the power cuts affect the hustle and drive of this historic city in a city. Residents reported that things were getting worse, not better — although City Power keeps reporting improvements in its quarterly reports. The Alex local economy is vibrant but business owners told us that the outages either shut them down or cost a lot in additional investments in inverters, generators and diesel.  

We first met Ntuthuko Zulu*, a Selborne Street resident in Alex. She chose her own nom de plume and, like many people we spoke to, did not want to use her real name. 

“I’m a resident. Born and raised in Alexandra. At first it was not much of a big deal because we knew probably after two days we’re gonna have electricity, but now it’s a lot. It’s more than after two days, it’ll be probably a week or a month we don’t have electricity.

“My mother calls every day, in the morning especially. So, when she couldn’t get a hold of us, me and my brother, it was a big problem because she was asking herself what’s going on?

“We are not buying anything that would need to be in the freezer as much as we used to — now we buy food on a daily basis, which is expensive. Living day to day is expensive. We once had an outage in February (2025), I think for two or three weeks if I’m not mistaken. And a couple of blocks away from where I stay, some people managed to steal electricity power cables. And they managed to catch them, so that they can put the cables back so we won’t get affected. Then after the cables were stolen, they fixed it a week later.

“Also, the main reason we are having this kind of problem is we, yoh, I can’t pronounce this in English; but we extract from the box which is a dangerous thing. And extracting extra power also overpowers the box and then it explodes and it also malfunctions on the City Power (side). (City Power reports that illegal connections are a major cause of outages.) 

“We are also building extra houses behind our current house. Most of the time we blame the City Power people and we don’t blame the residents. When you walk you can actually hear that there is an electricity buzzing sound — you can hear that something is wrong. When you say something bad might happen, people are taking it a bit lightly. I think when City Power hears that we need them to come out as soon as possible, they need to come out immediately. And when they are here, we stand outside into the night with our pyjamas on waiting for them to finish fixing it. (City Power teams are overwhelmed by calls and its overtime bill is high.) 

Nathi Dankuru 

“As a resident of Alexandra, when they introduced this load reduction, normally we knew that the electricity would go out for two hours and come back. (Load reduction is a punitive electricity provision reduction in areas where payments are low or illegal connections are high.) But over December (2024), January and February (2025) we would go for days without electricity. 

“And it’s frustrating, because we don’t know when there will be an outage. People are (often) not in their houses; they’ve gone to work, and sometimes it comes back and burns things, TVs and appliances, in the house. (This is probably due to surges when power is restored.) 

“No one knows when to leave their house and switch off and unplug everything. When they stop power, even the (phone) networks, they’re not working properly, and then we’ve got stress because we can’t communicate properly. I lose money when the electricity goes off for three to four days. We buy groceries and food but if it (the electricity) goes off for three to four days, we have to cook the meat quickly. And you can’t eat (it all). So, things get spoiled. And some of us only get this R370 (Social Relief of Distress grant) and then it’s difficult. 

“At 6pm it gets dark and unsafe — criminals target workers returning home. (Although community patrols do help.) Last time we had a meeting with City Power who promised us extra poles (for additional distribution). We need this because of people who have outside rooms. They have added connections, sometimes illegal connections. With more backyard rooms and illegal connections, the system can’t cope. (Backyard dwelling or building extra rooms is a common way of making an income across Gauteng. Savvy city planners should reward this entrepreneurialism with infrastructure planning.)”

Tsutsumani resident and small business owner Malusi asked us not to use his surname. 

“From February into March (2025) we were off for almost a month; it was tough. We had to make a plan. I must pay rent where I stay, and I must pay rent here (at his business). Our inverter lasts about three hours. After that, the cigars that need to be in a constant chilled environment start to dry out. That’s when I bought a battery (for his hair-cutting machines) and a small inverter which keeps electric going, so I’m connecting that for two or three hours so that I can get three or five people to come to the barber.

“You must buy every day and cook fresh every day. It’s tough.”

“You can’t send WhatsApps, make calls or keep food — everything goes off. You must throw it out. You must buy every day and cook fresh every day. It’s tough.” 

Clement, who has run his Siga Da Mexikasi Style restaurant since 2019 on the East Bank, did not give us his surname, like the other business owners we met. 

“We are a restaurant without any generator or alternative power supply. Over December (2024) January and February (2025) it was bad, as we cannot cook without electricity.

“It affected us, especially when we had to buy stock, because we couldn’t store anything as we don’t have cold storage without electricity. With these unplanned outages it’s really affecting us. We were not able to serve customers. Of course, there was huge demand during those outages, but we couldn’t meet the demand without power, obviously!

“Recently we were out for 16 hours — City Power’s response is worse in the rain. City Power should assist us by providing alternative power sources, solar lights when it comes to our lighting, and a generator for us to use for cooking. (City Power is said to be R26-billion in the red, so it can’t meet his wishes.)” 

Claremont and surrounds

The near-western area of Claremont is a regular on the Daily Maverick’s Johannesburg reporting horizon. The community knows us, through the activist Keith Bingle, and tell us when things go wrong, which is often.  

We start by meeting Moegamat Jones, who started the Jones Urban Farm, a community garden. Typical of the legion of Johannesburg community leaders who keep the city functioning, Jones turned adversity to hope. His property is near a dump site that attracted both crime and a squatter community. Working with them, he cleared the two-hectare site that today is a community garden (or urban farm), nature reserve and open space for people who traditionally don’t have these communal assets. 

Jones’ dream is to make this an educational eco-village and he teaches people to plant and harvest organics — or to grow their own food. Claremont skirts ganglands and he gives young people other options, including how to develop a local circular economy, turning waste to cash (he gets his teams to make and sell manure).  Jones was an able interlocutor on what power cuts mean in poor areas.  

“In the by-election (campaign, earlier in 2025) things improved a bit. (Claremont had a hotly contested by-election when we visited earlier in 2025.) The (local) factories are affected by outages, it stops the whole production; on our side it stops us from watering because we are using a pump, and it makes it difficult. 

“It takes long for them (City Power) to restore power. One has to escalate and escalate. (City Power takes hours to answer phones and while it’s online logging system works, if often closes job cards before a problem is solved.) Most of the residents around here (Claremont) are not paying (for electricity) and we are suffering because we have to pay exorbitant prices and a lot of us are defaulting now, including myself. (Electricity tariffs are so high in Johannesburg that City Power revenues are under severe strain, leading to high indebtedness and declining service levels. It’s in a utility trap.) 

“How am I supposed to pay about R3,500 a month? In my house, we always switch the lights off in the rooms that we are not in, the geyser is also switched off but the bill is still so high. The billing system is also not right. (Even with mass power cuts, most residents say bills never come down.) They don’t consider this is a low-income community — the bills are too high.

“They are not dealing with the root problem”

“We had a major outage a few days ago and the whole area was affected, a substation went down. But I think somewhere along the line it’s the same thing, it’s the same fault, they’re not dealing with the root problem. They must plan properly. If cables are stolen here, it will take a very long time for the police to come out, so what we’ve done now is rely on private security who act quicker. This morning people were caught trying to steal cables there, caught by private security. It’s unfair for us, the ratepayers, a lot of people are not paying, and I know it’s affecting service delivery. They are doing estimations of usage, which is why the amount isn’t coming down. They refused my request for a prepaid meter. They said I was behind with my payments. (Cable thieves often operate with full impunity and in front of residents who can’t do anything.) 

“I’m not saying there isn’t poverty, there is poverty around here, but if you look at all the flats everyone has dishes, with premium DSTV — most of them anyway. And how much is that? R1,000. (A DSTV premium subscription is R979 a month, and more than two million people in the past financial year have cut the cord, although they still have a dish.)  

“Also, if you look at the infrastructure, it’s bad. There is an electricity box down my road, they stole the fence a year or two ago, they steal the circuit breakers. That’s due to poor maintenance — the grass isn’t cut, and the fence hasn’t been replaced. The grass is so high that no one can see the thieves, so we have started cutting the grass there now for them (the council. The City council does not do basic grass cutting or verge and kerb cleaning any longer, so Johannesburg is quite a jungle.)  One other electricity issue is that the street lights are on all day, and I think it’s an unnecessary usage when the sun is out.” (Many residents told Daily Maverick about street lights that are on during the day and off at night.) 

Ridwaan Hope lives at Claremont Village, a City-run retirement village we have reported on before.  

“We have a problem with the meter system. Everyone around the Claremont Retirement Village does not buy electricity, but for the elderly, they always come to check meters. All the other connections in the area are jippoed. I requested from the councillors to reconnect the cables directly to the retirement village without using a prepaid meter, because it’s an exploitation of the elderly. We’re not supposed to be paying for services, because we’re here to settle down. 

“We’re not supposed to worry about electricity running out, that red light flashing (when prepaid electricity runs out); they must just connect it straight and let us pay a flat rate — maybe R200 to R300 a month. (We have previously reported how people are choosing between food and energy in this area.) 

“There are people who are on oxygen, and if they don’t have a battery backup there is a problem. Not everybody’s solar-powered geysers are working here (the City has a solar geyser programme that Claremont Village has benefited from, but these are not well maintained.) In the village, mine isn’t working. Nobody services it. Councillors say City Power used to service it, but not anymore. And not everybody here has gas stoves to cook. 

“Also, my fridge is broken, I had someone come out, and the motor has packed up as a result of the power outages. It's a problem that financially I can’t afford, but that guy also needs to be paid.”

Jacoba Guild is a resident of Claremont Village.

“We pay R360 a month to stay here in the retirement village, and our prepaid (electricity) costs R600. This year with the power outages, you can’t really bake something, and you can’t really cook. I have a gas stove, but if you want to cook it’s really a battle.

“When the fridge is off for a couple of hours, then the water runs out, then I have to clean the floor, and I just cleaned the floor the day before.

“There is just this one tuckshop that we can buy bread here if we can’t cook, but the lady at number 3 and the lady at number 8 was robbed just outside the gate of the village on their way to the shop! (With outages people have to shop more regularly instead of being able to freeze or store food in a fridge.)

“I’ve been here at the retirement village for nine years in September, and my husband fixed the geyser when we moved in here, so we have a working solar powered geyser. This place is freezing because the roof is flat, and the ceiling is against the roof with no insulation, so it’s very cold when there is no power.”

Johnny runs Nonos Bakery Claremont, a local institution of deliciousness that has been in the area for decades. 

“If it wasn’t for this generator, this business wouldn’t be sustainable.”

“If it wasn’t for this generator, this business wouldn’t be sustainable; I would have closed down ages ago if I didn’t take steps to counter the power outages. I put in a 240KVA 3-Phase generator. It uses 30 litres of diesel per day. And if I had to run it all day, it would cost R4,000 a month in diesel, which should give you an idea how much an outage takes away from the bakery’s bottom line. Solar power isn’t feasible because it peaks at midday, which doesn’t align with our busy times, which are 7am to 9am and then 4pm to 7pm.

“People know Nonos stays open from 8am to 7pm, outage or not.” 

Vlakfontein is in Johannesburg’s region G, the hard south of Johannesburg where the city turns gritty. It lies on both sides of the Golden Highway. Further on is Lenasia and Lenasia South.

Moosa works at Tau Buy & Braai in Vlakfontein Extension 1.

“The unplanned power outages affect us a lot. We sell meat, and sometimes the meat becomes damaged because it (electricity) can go out for a week. As the power goes off, sometimes our food gets damaged. We have a generator, but we only use it for lights and the meat scale because petrol is expensive. When the power goes out, our refrigerators and our warmers are affected.

“We braai the meat, then we put it in the warmer for the customers. When the customers order they select from pap, vegetables and meat in the warmers. We have spoken to the ward councillor. Both sides of Vlakfontein suffer outages. When there is an outage, it affects certain extensions at a time and it takes a long time for them to fix the problem. Maybe you can tell them today and they will only fix it after a few days. Or even a week, especially when the transformers are the problem. They blow, and it takes them up to a week to fix. (Many of City Power’s transformers and other big infrastructure are between 50 and 75 years old and have never been properly maintained or replaced since their inception. The municipal electricity distributor has a R44-billion maintenance and infrastructure backlog.) 

“So, for a week the business is affected. At home it’s very bad. I live across the Golden Highway in Vlakfontein proper. In the morning I have to prepare a fire outside, because I don’t have money for gas. Then I can bath and come to work. At schools, when there is no power, they come out early. The clinic has a generator so they can keep the service going. 

“We use fibre in the area now, so we no longer buy data. We rely on this fibre, so if there is no power, the fibre goes down and there’s no communication. The crime rate increases when there is no power. Because some of our street lights don’t work when the power is out, most of the area is dark. If we can get three or four more ‘apollos’ (high solar mast lights), I think the crime rate will be less.”

Kabelo is a resident and a student at The Finishing College in Braamfontein, and he runs a business in Vlakfontein.

“The power outages are very bad, hey, because literally every time it starts raining, or it rains, or it gets a little windy, the lights go. They’re gone for days. It’s not a few hours — it’s four to six days at a time. Food rots, and there’s no water to bathe. It’s stressful for everybody. Most houses here have gas stoves, or primer stoves that use paraffin, and others light a fire to boil water to bath or to cook. It’s really hard. Imagine getting up in the morning to go and look for wood for a fire. As a student, it’s bad, because you have to do schoolwork. Without Wi-Fi, the (mobile phone) towers go down and the network is bad. I can’t complete my assignments, so I have to do everything there in Braamfontein, and catch late transport back home again. 

“The crime increases in the dark — robberies, house break-ins, hijackings and murders — people die here, guys. The ward councillor is aware of the power outages, and I think he is doing the best he can and it is out of his hands, I am not sure. Sitembiso Zungu (the councilor) lets us know what’s happening, he communicates with us. 

Nishen Govender owns a water company called BluSurge H2O in Lenasia South. He bottles and sells borehole water because the area has had a water crisis for years. 

“If the power is out I can’t pump or purify any water, so I can’t sell any water. Even with clean water in the tank, I can’t pump it out. I borrowed a generator, but I’ve only used it twice because of the fuel costs. Infrastructure and maintenance are a problem. It would help if City Power supported cheaper inverter or generator options, either lower inverter costs or subsidised inverter or subsidised generator costs.” 

Joe owns Auto Tech Paints in Lenasia South and has been in business for six years and employs five people. 

“We need electricity for bright lights, first of all to stir the paints, to see the colours properly. I bought a generator and we have a power box (inverter), or we would have had to close. It’s an expensive eco-flow system, and cost about R30,000. We kick over to the system in outages. The generator runs for about two hours before I have to top up (with diesel) again. And the eco-flow system, being top of the range, can run throughout the day but it is very costly to recharge. I don’t have solar so cannot recharge when there is an outage. Staff productivity is affected in that stirring machines and recharging devices that they use in order to get the accuracy of the paints are offline. Fuel costs of R400 to R500 a day hurt our bottom line. 

“The Lens ward councillors are hands on, but not so much when it comes to businesses. We live in a society that isn’t that advanced. If there is an outage we can report it to our councillors, however they can only do so much until City Power comes through to resolve the issue. They first have to come inspect, and then go back to head office to get the parts or resources they need to do the repair work, and by that time business is closed. (City Power is not able to carry a wide stock of parts for repairs as it owes its suppliers too much.)” DM

This investigation was produced with the support of the SA | AJP,  an initiative of the Henry Nxumalo Foundation funded by the European Union. This article does not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.

Research by Shahdia Johnson and Zane Carim.