South Africa experienced a major internet outage on Thursday, with internet users across the country reporting slow speeds or pages becoming unresponsive.
A Vodacom spokesperson told News24 that multiple submarine cable failures have occurred between South Africa and Europe, impacting network providers including Vodacom.
“This means certain customers are currently experiencing intermittent connectivity issues,” the spokesperson said.
By 15:00, the volume of Downdetector outage reports on some platforms such as Microsoft, Vodacom, MTN and Whatsapp had decreased from the highs experienced around 13:30.
Network monitoring site Downdetector showed a significant increase in outage reports on many of the country’s largest network platforms starting around 12:30 p.m.
Below is a list of companies that have reported significant outages on Downdetector.
- microsoft
- MTN
- vodacom
- open serve
- X
- Afrihost
- cell C
- various banking platforms
News24 understands that the West African cable system is one of the cables currently affected.
In late February, submarine cable company Seacom reported multiple cable breaks in the Red Sea. The rupture is believed to have occurred after the cable was dragged around the anchor of a shipwreck in the area.
News24 understands that the current outage is caused by a further disruption, but the cause is not yet known.
Johannesburg and Cape Town have been assigned “rerouted” status on Cloudflare, one of the largest networks on the internet.
Microsoft Azure posted a status update on its site warning customers about network issues on the continent. The company said it was investigating the matter.
“Customers using Azure services in Northern South Africa and Western South Africa may experience increased network latency, packet drops, decreased performance, and availability issues when accessing resources.”
A Vodacom spokesperson said the issue was currently being addressed.
