South Africans Experience Internet Outage Over Undersea Cable Failures

• Various companies in South Africa and citizens complained that their internet connections were disrupted
• This was because of a cable break that hit undersea cables, affecting not only Mzansi but parts of the world
• South Africans made jokes about what they believed caused the internet outage, hilariously blaming loadshedding and the ANC

Tebogo Mokwena, a Briefly News journalist in Johannesburg, South Africa, covered accidents, outbreaks, nature and natural disaster-related incidents at Daily Sun and Vutivi Business News for seven years. Do you have a hard news story you would like to share? Email tebogo.mokwena@briefly.co.za with CA in the subject line.

JOHANNESBURG – South Africa and the rest of the world experienced connectivity issues after an internet cable broke under the sea on 14 March. This also affected companies in the country.

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Jacaranda FM reported that the internet outage was caused by the cables breaking, possibly near the Ivory Coast, though this was not confirmed. Companies such as FNB, LinkedIn and WhatsApp were also affected, and Vodacom's customers were also affected. Other affected areas included Europe and the Middle East.

South Africans joke about the internet outage

Netizens on Facebook took the opportunity to turn the connectivity issue into something worth laughing about. They came up with various funny causes for the internet problems.

Joe Black jokingly blamed the African National Congress.

"ANC is failing even under the sea," he said.

Chris Joubert pointed his finger to loadshedding.

"Loadshedding, water-shedding and now internet-shedding."

Morné van Zyl joked that the problem was caused by marine wildlife.

"Blame the poor whales."

Malome Lesiba said:

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"Vodacom is relieved."

Brian Stevens asked:

"Where is that SA Navy submarine?"

Juanita remarked:

"Are they stealing cables underwater now?"

Cable theft cost Johanessburg R28 million in 6 years

Recently, Briefly News reported that the Johannesburg Road Association revealed in 2023 that increased traffic light cable theft cost the city R28 million.

It also revealed that taxpayers had to pay R28 million from 2018 to 2023 to replace the traffic lights stolen by cable thieves.

South Africans called for stricter laws to be enforced to curb cable theft in the country.

Source: Briefly News