The lights were on again in Cape Town by Saturday morning after most of the Mother City was plunged into darkness on Friday night due to a faulty power-supply line.
“Power was restored at 2.30am. Most parts of the city were without power from 9pm on Friday after a technical fault at a local substation feeding into the service,” Eskom said.
The parastatal apologised for the inconvenience caused to its customers.
The South African Broadcasting Corporation reported on Saturday that a power-supply line between Muldersvlei and Arcasia had been damaged, causing the massive power failure.
The Cape Town power cut did not seem to be related to the ongoing nationwide electricity crisis that has led to daily power failures across South Africa.
South African mines made slow progress in bringing back production on Friday after Eskom allowed them to make only limited increases to their electricity consumption.
After first saying it would be able to meet 90% of the needs of the gold, platinum, diamond and coal miners, utility Eskom said on Thursday that generating-plant breakdowns meant it could supply only 80% of their needs.
The power cuts that shut the mines a week ago have helped push global precious metals prices to record highs and stoked concerns about a slowdown of growth in Africa’s largest economy.
They have also piled pressure on President Thabo Mbeki’s government, accused by critics of ignoring warnings that the crisis was coming.
Eskom says shortages are likely to last several years, with more power failures predicted for next month, and the failures have cast a shadow over South Africa’s ability to host the 2010 Soccer World Cup.