Parts of South Africa are grappling with slower internet speeds this week as a major international undersea data cable – the West Africa Cable System (WACS) – undergoes emergency repairs off the coast of Namibia.
The 14 500km fibre-optic link, which connects South Africa to Europe via Portugal, went offline on Sunday, 1 June, after a critical fault was detected in a branching unit near Swakopmund.
The damaged component – a branching unit which reroutes data signals – has been retrieved by a deep-sea cable repair ship.
Engineers are now working to install a replacement and conduct tests to restore connectivity between Yzerfontein and Lisbon, a crucial handover hub for European internet traffic.
“We’ve verified the rest of the cable is intact. The next step is to install the new unit and perform a full signal test,” said Robert Kraai, co-chair of the WACS operations committee.
Who’s affected?
- Western Cape users are feeling the brunt of the outage, with reports of sluggish browsing and interrupted video streaming.
- Gauteng and northern regions, however, are largely unaffected due to their reliance on East Coast alternatives like Seacom and EASSy.
“Many networks in the Western Cape lean heavily on WACS,” said local ISP Cool Ideas.
“That makes this kind of outage particularly disruptive in the region.”
Repairs are expected to continue until at least 16 June, but experts stress that sea conditions could impact the timeline.
“If the ocean cooperates, we should see service restored by the third week of June,” telecom analyst Roderick Beck noted.
“But it’s the sea – anything can happen.”
Why it matters
WACS is vital not just for basic internet access, but for high-speed data services, global content delivery, and cloud connectivity in South Africa.
It also connects to the South Atlantic Cable System (SACS) via Angola, making it a linchpin for regional and intercontinental traffic.
The incident underscores how fragile global connectivity can be – relying on a small number of deep-sea cables, often vulnerable to faults, weather events, or physical damage.
Have you noticed a slower internet speed this week?
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