During the start of August, two undersea communication cables responsible for Internet connectivity in South Africa snapped. Certain websites are expected to load slowly, while others may not work at all.

On August 6, both the West Africa Cable System (WACS) and the South Atlantic Telecommunications Cable number three (SAT-3) broke, reportedly due to rockfall in the Congo Canyon. These cables are crucial for high-speed transfer of telecommunications signals across the globe.

“The unplanned, sudden removal of key routes like WACS and SAT-3 can be expected to result in initial disruption in traffic flows,” Vodacom spokesperson, Byron Kennedy, said. “This will make websites feel slower, or just not work at all. Networks are actively working on bringing up new capacity to deal with the cut, while work is underway to repair the break, which may take weeks to repair.”

According to Kennedy, the cables are expected to be repaired by the second week of September.

Darul Ihsan Media Desk