The cut-off low pressure system that brought floods to KwaZulu-Natal this week has wreaked havoc on Openserve’s infrastructure in the region, the Telkom-owned company said on Wednesday.
As a result of the inclement weather, there has been a significant increase in network-related faults, Openserve said in a statement.
“The flooding has restricted technicians from accessing underground (facilities) in the fault zones and will cause delays in repair times,” it said.
“The extent of the damage to infrastructure in KZN, which spans buildings, indoor and outdoor core and access network infrastructure, is substantial and the impact is still being assessed.”
It said overhead cables have also been affected, with trees becoming waterlogged resulting in branches breaking or falling onto the cables. Lightning has also caused damage to the cable network and customers’ onsite equipment.
‘Doing our utmost’
“We are proactively monitoring all critical sites to minimise service interruptions and are doing our utmost to restore services in affected areas as soon as possible,” said Openserve CEO Alphonzo Samuels.
“We understand the great inconvenience disconnection of our services brings to our clients and their customers. We will therefore be on extra high alert during this period, mobilising all available technicians to work additional hours if needs be,” Samuels said.
He said affected customers should report faults via their service providers. — (c) 2019 NewsCentral Media