Openserve has stated that bad weather in KwaZulu-Natal has “wreaked havoc” on its infrastructure in the province.

This has resulted in a “significant increase in network related faults”.

“The flooding has restricted technicians from accessing underground accesses in the fault zones and will cause delays in repair times,” said Openserve.

It added that the extent of the damage to infrastructure in KwaZulu-Natal – which spans buildings, indoor and outdoor core and access network infrastructure – is substantial and “the net impact is still being assessed”.

“Overhead cables have also been affected with trees becoming waterlogged resulting in branches breaking or falling onto overhead cables with resultant damage. Lightning has also caused damage to the cable network and customer premise equipment,” said Openserve.

“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.”

Openserve said it understands that the outages will cause great inconvenience for customers and it is mobilising all available technicians to work on restoring downed lines.

It also encouraged customers to report faults via their service providers.

Floods and mudslides

Floods and mudslides have battered KwaZulu-Natal this week, following heavy rain in the province.

EWN reported that at least 23 people have died as a result and many people are still trapped.

The photo below was sent to MyBroadband by a resident in Amanzimtoti, showing the extent of the damage caused by the rain.