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- A fault at a Bloemfontein substation caused a city-wide power outage on Monday night.
- Large parts of the city remained without electricity on Tuesday morning.
- The time required to repair the fault was yet to be determined, said power utility Centlec.
Four babies were born at a Bloemfontein hospital, despite the city facing widespread power outages on Monday night.
The power outage, which plunged the city into darkness at around 19:00, was caused by a fault at a substation.
The power outage was caused by a failure at the Harvard substation and saw "the whole city of Bloemfontein" without power.
"Upon investigation, our personnel discovered that the outage occurred due to equipment failure caused by a system fault," said Lele Mamatu, a spokesperson for power utility Centlec.
During the power outage, four babies – two boys and two girls – were born at Mangaung University Community Partnership Programme (MUCPP) health centre, said Free State Department of Health spokesperson Mondli Mvambi.
The department said generators had immediately kicked in to save lives at affected public facilities. These included Pelonomi Tertiary Hospital, Universitas Academic Hospital, Free State Psychiatric Hospital, National District Hospital, the Mangaung University Community Partnership Programme health centre, and Batho Clinic.
"The health facilities seamlessly switched on to diesel-run generators, which kicked in without any glitches and sustained life-saving health activities at different health facilities," said Mvambi.
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Mamatu said the switching-on process had already begun on Monday night while a team worked to clear the fault and reconnect electricity in all areas.
On Monday night, Eskom restored supply and the northern and western lines were switched on.
"Load is currently being taken at Noordstad, Tempe, Dan Pienaar, Bayswater, Naval Park, the CBD, Showgrounds, Coronation, Shannon A and B, Bloemdustria, Tibbie Visser, Arcadia, Limousine, Maselspoort, Estoire, Park West, Universitas, Pellissier, Spitskop, and Fichardt Park," Centlec said on Monday night.
However, southern line feeders are still affected.
In a statement on Tuesday morning, the Mangaung Municipality said residents were still experiencing power outages.
"The technical team discovered that the outage occurred due to equipment failure caused by a systems fault," the municipality added.
Mamatu said a team was on-site to clean the equipment and replace the damaged components on the feeder that supplies the southern parts of the city.
"At this stage, restoration time cannot be predicted," said Matamu.
