---
title: "Watch – More than 1,200 City Power outages in two weeks leave Joburg buckling"
type: "VideoObject"
publisher: "Daily Maverick"
site: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za"
section: "Maverick News"
author: "Anna Cox"
author_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/author/anna-cox/"
canonical_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/video/2026-08-06-watch-more-than-1200-city-power-outages-in-two-weeks-leave-joburg-buckling/"
published: "2026-08-06T21:56:32"
lang: "en-ZA"
word_count: 615
---

# Watch – More than 1,200 City Power outages in two weeks leave Joburg buckling

> [YouTube video: "YouTube video"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qf2ofYYBYJc)

By Anna Cox · Published 6 August 2026, 23:56 SAST

[Watch the video on Daily Maverick](https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/video/2026-08-06-watch-more-than-1200-city-power-outages-in-two-weeks-leave-joburg-buckling/)

## Content

*[Watch video on Daily Maverick](https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/video/2026-08-06-watch-more-than-1200-city-power-outages-in-two-weeks-leave-joburg-buckling/)*

Crumbling infrastructure, systemic operational paralysis, and brazen extortion schemes have pushed Johannesburg’s electricity network to its breaking point, leaving the utility increasingly unable to cope with a localised crisis that councillors warn is sliding out of control. Daily Maverick’s Anna Cox reports.

Reporting by: Anna Cox
Filmed by: Joel Seboa
Edited by: Anda Tolibadi
Produced by: Emilie Gambade
Creative lead by: Malibongwe Tyilo
Sub-edited by: Ian Wolstenholme

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**\*\*\***

Johannesburg’s electricity grid is sliding out of control.

​What we are witnessing across the metro is no longer just a series of technical faults. It is a systemic operational failure, one that has pushed City Power to its breaking point, leaving communities stranded in the dark for weeks on end. ​

​More than 1,200 active outages have hit the city since the start of July alone. From Sandton to Midrand - and right across the inner city - households and businesses are facing blackouts lasting up to 20 days.

Public anger has officially boiled over into the streets.

Hi, I’m Anna Cox, a reporter for the Johannesburg bureau at Daily Maverick.

​Mid-July, in Kliptown’s Chicken Farm informal settlement, residents blockaded Chris Hani Road after an electrification project was suddenly abandoned. A R20-million budget was spent connecting Block A, but Block B was left in the dark when contractors packed up and disappeared, allegedly because consultants were not paid.

​In Diepkloof, protests shut down the N12 highway over debt-enforced cutoffs. And in the East in Malvern and Bez Valley, residents burnt tyres on Jules and Albertina Sisulu streets.

The blackouts are not just about faults on the network. City Power itself seems to be struggling to get basic work done. Ward councillors say vehicles are standing idle, fault reports are not always being allocated, and repair teams are running out of essential cable and spare parts.

In some cases, City Power says it simply does not have what it needs to fix the problem. And when repair crews do show up, the quality of the work is often very poor.

​In Ward 57, technicians spent days replacing a failed cable on Elton Street, only to install a wire that was physically too small to handle the electrical load. The blunder forced teams to shut the entire system back down, abandon the site and start sourcing a new cable from scratch.

​Across the city, temporary repairs are failing within 24 to 48 hours, restarting the cycle of darkness all over again. ​

​Most alarming, however, is the shadow economy that has filled this operational gap. Criminal syndicates and rogue contractors are actively exploiting the desperation of residents through cash-for-power rackets.

​In Kensington, video footage captured a thief ripping a cable directly off a street pole on Leicester Road. The same individual then went door-to-door, demanding R3,000 from residents to reconnect their power.

​In Ward 118, councillors report that components are being stripped from working substations to fix faults elsewhere in exchange for cash.

​And on Jules Street in Malvern, a locked City Power distribution box was found completely gutted of internal breakers and cut cables. The external locks were completely intact.

​City Power denies that the utility is in disarray. Spokesperson Isaac Mangena attributes the massive backlog strictly to legacy issues like ageing infrastructure, cable theft, vandalism and winter network overloads. The utility denies authorising component removals or issuing false restoration times to pacify the public.

​But for local councillors and residents, the reality on the ground tells a very different story.

​This is no longer just an infrastructure crisis. It is a collapse of governance and oversight, and Johannesburg residents are paying the price in the dark. **DM**