Thousands of Cape Town residents lost electricity on Monday evening, 28 September 2026, after a fault hit parts of the northern and western suburbs.
The City of Cape Town said a transformer had tripped. It said the fault affected supply to Plattekloof, N1, Big Bay, Elsies River, Goodwood, Kraaifontein and Tiervlei, among other areas.
The outage was not caused by load shedding. No load shedding was scheduled when the power went off, according to Cape Town Etc.
Areas supplied by the City and areas supplied by Eskom lost power at about the same time, the report said.
The outage tracking platform EskomSePush recorded 3 677 power off reports in one hour at around 18:00. Almost 3 900 reports had already been logged across Cape Town in the 24 hours before that.
The Facebook news page WAAR Brandit INNI KAAP said reports of power failures rose sharply during the evening. Residents in several suburbs said they had lost supply.
People reported problems in Parklands, Sandown, Big Bay, Greater Table View and Blouberg. Richwood, West Beach and Bloubergstrand were also affected.
Further north and east, outages were reported in Durbanville, Edgemead, Plattekloof, Burgundy Estate and Parow South. Kraaifontein and Goodwood residents also reported losing power.
The City said power was being restored in stages. It said attempts to bring parts of the network back kept tripping because the system was unstable.
This means some homes may see the lights come back for a short time and then go off again. Teams are still working through the fault.
Officials warned that full restoration would take time because of how many areas were hit. The report said one large fault higher up in the network can cut power to many communities at once.
Residents without power have been asked to report their own faults and get a reference number. They should not rely only on reports shared in community groups.
City customers can report faults on the City of Cape Town Alerts page or its official Facebook page. They can also SMS fault and account details to 31220.
The City’s electricity WhatsApp line is 060 018 1505. Eskom customers should report outages through the MyEskom Customer App.
Residents have been advised to switch off and unplug sensitive electronics and appliances at the wall while supply is unstable. This can protect them from power surges when the electricity returns.
Community groups have also asked people not to keep posting street by street confirmations in messaging groups. They said this keeps restoration updates and urgent messages easy to see.
Source: this article is based on reporting by Cape Town ETC. Image: Cape Town ETC. Written with the help of AI and published by the Tzaneen Voice News desk. See our Editorial Standards.
Kgomotso Maake covers news and politics for Tzaneen Voice. Kgomotso reports on government, Parliament, municipalities, courts, crime and service delivery across South Africa, with a close eye on how national decisions reach towns like Tzaneen and the wider Limpopo province. Stories are written in plain English and focus on the facts: who made the decision, what it means, and what happens next.