SABC spokesperson Vuyo Mthembu said: “The SABC would like to apologise to the public for the break in transmission which occurred last night at 8:07pm, affecting several of the SABC’s radio stations.”

She said the break in transmission was due to a power failure at the Sentech tower, which is the SABC’s signal distributor based in Brixton, Johannesburg.

“Unfortunately the SABC’s standby generator failed to kick in immediately, however power was restored approximately 40 minutes later. The SABC is working with SENTECH to ensure that such technical challenges do not occur in the future or the next time there is a power outage,” said Mthembu.

Meanwhile, South Africa's state-owned electricity utility Eskom said it would implement Stage 2 rotational power cuts or load shedding from 8 am to 11 pm due to a shortage of capacity.

Eskom generates, transmits and distributes approximately 95 percent of the electricity used in South Africa and about 45 percent of power used on the African continent, but has struggled to meet demand.

Stage 2 requires 2,000 MW of power to be rotationally loadshed nationally at a given period to protect the power system from a total collapse or blackout.

African News Agency (ANA)