Lights back on in southern Cape after hour-long Friday blackout

The whole of the southern Cape was without power for almost an hour on Friday.

Eskom said the outage lasted from 10.16am to 11.05am, and was caused by an explosion on a current transformer at the Proteus substation near Mossel Bay.

Affected towns included Mossel Bay, George, Knysna, Oudtshoorn, Riversdale, Still Bay and Plettenberg Bay.

George Municipality spokesperson Athane Scholtz said the outage had not caused much disruption.

“Most businesses in the region, including our offices, have back-up generators," she said.