Thousands of Cape Town residents were left without electricity on Monday evening after a widespread fault hit parts of the northern and western suburbs, Cape {town} Etc reports.
The outage struck on Monday, 28 September 2026, with both City of Cape Town and Eskom-serviced areas affected at roughly the same time. Importantly, the disruption was not caused by load shedding, with no scheduled load shedding in effect when the outages began.
According to the Facebook news page WAAR Brandit INNI KAAP, reports of power failures surged sharply during the evening as residents across several suburbs reported losing supply.
Community outage platform EskomSePush recorded 3 677 power-off reports in a single hour at around 18:00. Almost 3 900 reports had already been recorded across Cape Town during the preceding 24-hour period.
Residents reported problems in areas including Parklands, Sandown, Big Bay, Greater Table View and Blouberg. Further north and east, outages were reported in Durbanville, Edgemead, Plattekloof, Burgundy Estate, Parow South, Kraaifontein and Goodwood.
Richwood, West Beach and Bloubergstrand were also among the areas reporting interruptions. Tracker figures showed the scale of the disruption, with:
- Kraaifontein (341 reports)
- Durbanville (128 reports)
- Parklands with (62 reports)
- Table View (54 reports)
- Bloubergstrand (40 reports)
The City of Cape Town confirmed that a transformer had tripped, affecting supply to Plattekloof, N1, Big Bay, Elsies River, Goodwood, Kraaifontein and Tiervlei, among other areas.
The City said electricity was being restored in stages, although attempts to bring sections of the network back online continued to trip because of instability. That means residents may experience supply returning temporarily before another interruption occurs as teams work through the fault.
Given the scale of the disruption, officials warned that full restoration would take time. The incident also highlighted how a single major fault higher up in the electricity network can affect a large number of communities simultaneously, rather than being limited to one street or neighbourhood.
What residents should do
Residents affected by the outage are being encouraged to report their individual faults and obtain a reference number rather than relying only on community reports.
City customers can report faults through the City of Cape Town Alerts page or its official Facebook page. Fault and account details can also be sent by SMS to 31220, while the City’s electricity WhatsApp line is 060 018 1505.
Eskom customers should use the MyEskom Customer App to report outages.
Residents are also advised to switch off and unplug sensitive electronic equipment and appliances at the wall while the supply is unstable. This can help protect equipment from possible power surges when electricity returns.
Community groups have meanwhile asked residents to avoid repeatedly posting individual street-level confirmations in messaging groups, so that important restoration updates and other urgent information can remain visible.
For residents still without power, the key message is that the outage is being addressed, but restoration is taking place in stages while the network remains unstable.
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