by Thinus Ferreira
South Africa's public broadcaster is experiencing the loss of some of its SABC broadcasting services after it had to fall back on the prolonged use of generators for electricity after substation explosions in Johannesburg.
According to the SABC, the public broadcaster has been forced to switch to its contingency measures of using backup power generators during what it calls a "prolonged power outage" in and around the Auckland Park area since Sunday morning.
"The SABC has been operating with generator power and the extended use and reliance on this contingency measure has impacted the SABC's ability to maintain normal transmission operations across certain platforms and services".
The broadcaster says that Johannesburg's City Power said on Tuesday that the restoration period could not be confirmed after a second explosion at the substation.
"The SABC's technical teams are working around the clock to minimise interruptions and restore affected services as quickly as possible.
The SABC is also engaging other relevant stakeholders to monitor developments and implement appropriate mitigating measures," the broadcaster said on Wednesday morning.
It's as yet unclear which specific SABC broadcasting services have been interrupted, although the streaming availability of several channels and content on its video streaming service SABC+ have frozen.
According to City Power, the Mayfair substation exploded on Sunday 8 November. On Tuesday it exploded again.
City Power in a statement, said it hasn't been able to determine the cause of the explosions yet, and that restoration time is also unknown.
City Power regrets the secondary explosion at Mayfair Substation shortly after teams had begun restoring electricity at around 18:00."
"The fire department contained the fire, and the area has been cordoned off until it is declared safe for City Power teams to come in and do an assessment of the damage."
