NATIONAL NEWS - According to an advisory issued by internet service provider Afrihost on Saturday, South African internet users may experience increased latency and slow downloads from international servers and websites due to damaged undersea cables.

“We’re working to restore service on alternate paths,” said Afrihost before apologising for any inconvenience.

Various internet users had taken to social media on Saturday morning to file complaints about lagging internet speeds with their respective ISPs.

This comes just two months after two unrelated breaks at the sites of two key undersea cables that connect South Africa to the global internet, left some South Africans with very slow internet speeds and no Twitter.

According to Business Insider ,the South Atlantic 3/West Africa (SAT-3/Wasc) submarine cable, which links Portugal and Spain to South Africa, with connections to several West African countries along the way, was hit by a breakdown near Libreville, Gabon in January. In addition, the system which links South Africa with the United Kingdom also saw an outage off the coast of Congo at the time.

On Saturday, the publication reported that the West African Cable System (Wacs) had broken again.

The break was detected just before midnight on Friday evening by the South African National Research & Education Network who is said to be a major user of the cable.

The break is reportedly on a section of cable between England and Portugal.

This could prove detrimental to South Africans who find themselves having to work from home during the current national lockdown period.

Source: Caxton publication, The Citizen