Cape Town - MTN has confirmed that over 500 of its sites are down in the KwaZulu-Natal region due to the floods ravaging the province.
In a statement, the Cellphone provider it said the heavy rains had caused widespread damage to infrastructure and power outages in the region.
MTN South Africa’s Executive for Corporate Affairs, Jacqui O’Sullivan said the company’s backup batteries had been depleted.
“The flooding in the KZN region has caused power outages at many of our sites and while we have battery back-up at many of the sites, these batteries have been depleted.
“Our major challenge right now is gaining access to the sites with many roads being damaged or flooded, preventing us from refuelling our batteries or restoring power to the site,” she said.
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The floods have caused pandemonium with images of vehicles floating along major highways, roads collapsing and even places of worship being swept away being plastered all over social media.
O’Sullivan said the major areas impacted at this stage include: Durban South, South Coast, Umlazi, Malagazi, Amanzimtoti, Ballito, and Salt Rock.
“We know those affected need to be able to contact their families and friends. Access to connectivity is our priority and we are deploying all possible resources to assist,” she said.
O’Sullivan added that MTN wished to assure its impacted customers that its technicians were working around the clock to restore connectivity to the areas.
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