SA's internet outage 'exposed fragility of the system' - Tech expert

JOHANNESBURG - Tech expert Toby Shapshak says massive internet disruptions show how fragile South Africa's infrastructure is.

The country was hit by a massive outage that lasted for a few hours on Thursday.

Shapshak explained that this was due to undersea cables connecting South Africa and the African continent at large, breaking.

“There are nine cables that connect South Africa and most of Africa to the larger internet in Europe and America and Asia. And four of these cables - which go down the West Coast of the continent - were severed yesterday [Thursday]."

Shapshak said repairs were going to take some time.

In the interim, he said, the incident exposed the fragility of the system.

“It just shows you how fragile this kind of infrastructure actually is even though a lot of time and energy is put into making sure they’re tough cables, they’re solid.”