South Africa
South Africa anchors submarine cable connectivity across the southern tip of the African continent, with landing points on both its Atlantic and Indian Ocean coastlines serving a mix of active, retired and planned systems.
Connectivity at a glance
- Cable systems
- 5active
- 1 planned
- Landing points
- 3
- Resilience score
- 56
Cable systems serving South Africa
| Cable | Status | Ready for service | Length | Design capacity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| South Atlantic 3/West Africa Submarine Cable (SAT-3/WASC) | active | 2001 | 13,000 km | 340 Gbit /s |
| EASSy (Eastern Africa Submarine Cable System) | active | }} | 10,000 km | more than 10 Tbit/s |
| METISS Cable | active | — | — | — |
| SAT-1 | active | — | — | — |
| South Africa Far East, SAFE | active | }} | 13,104 km | — |
| SAex (South Atlantic Express Cable) | planned | 2021 (planned) | — | 108 TBit/s |
Landing points
- Melkbosstrand, South AfricaMelkbosstrand
- Mtunzini, South Africa }}Mtunzini
- Yzerfontein, South AfricaYzerfontein
Gateway at the southern tip
South Africa occupies a strategically significant position in the global submarine cable network. Sitting at the junction of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, the country can land cables arriving from Europe, the Americas, East Africa and Asia without any of those routes overlapping — a geographic advantage that few nations share. That position has made South Africa a natural hub for systems serving the broader Sub-Saharan region.
Documented landing points include Melkbosstrand and Yzerfontein on the Atlantic coast, and Mtunzini on the Indian Ocean side. The spread across two coastlines is the foundation of whatever route diversity South Africa's cable plant can claim.
The cable mix
Seven systems appear on the register for South Africa, spanning multiple generations of submarine cable technology.
SAT-3/WASC, which entered service in 2001, was one of the cables that defined early broadband connectivity along the West African coast. At roughly 13,000 km it connects South Africa westward and northward toward Europe. SAFE (South Africa Far East) runs to roughly the same length — 13,104 km — and provides the eastern corridor toward Asia. Together, these two older systems established the country's first meaningful bilateral diversity: one cable heading northwest, the other northeast.
EASSy extends approximately 10,000 km up the East African coast and adds a further Indian Ocean path, reinforcing the Mtunzini landing. METISS Cable serves the Indian Ocean island nations and connects back to South Africa, adding another spoke to the eastern side of the network.
Main One, at 14,000 km, is listed as retired, meaning that capacity has been withdrawn from service. Its loss reduces the effective Atlantic-facing cable count.
SAex (South Atlantic Express) is listed as planned with a target ready-for-service year of 2021, though no active status is recorded on this register — the system's current standing should be verified against operator announcements.
Resilience and limitations
The combination of Atlantic and Indian Ocean landings gives South Africa a structural resilience that landlocked neighbours cannot achieve without terrestrial transit through South Africa itself. A fault on a single cable does not isolate the country, provided traffic can be rerouted across the alternate coast.
That said, the retirement of Main One reduces Atlantic redundancy, and the uncertain status of SAex leaves a gap in what was anticipated to be a new transatlantic route. The active cable count on the Atlantic side warrants close monitoring, particularly as traffic demand across the continent continues to grow and South Africa's role as a regional transit hub deepens.