The civil unrest has resulted in numerous telecommunications and broadcasting infrastructure being destroyed. South Africa's telecommunications and broadcasting Regulator, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA), has published a notice indicating that, as at 13 July 2021,
113 network towers had been vandalised. As stated by ICASA in its notice, such destruction "is a direct attack on the constitutional right of individuals and communities to access news and information that is accurate, unbiased and up-to-date about the current crisis".
In a Code of Conduct published by the Minister of Defence on 14 July 2021, members of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) have been instructed to protect property and national key points. This would naturally include critical infrastructure such as telecommunications networks, which must be protected to enable persons to make emergency calls and to communicate with law enforcement in general regarding any further outbreaks of violence.
Clients are advised to ensure that their back-up solutions and disaster recovery plans are sufficient to enable continuous, uninterrupted access to systems and data, in light of the above damage to infrastructure.
