By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Banking groups Capitec and Absa services have been fully restored after experiencing disruptions early on Friday, after a widespread global computer outage.
Capitec, which is South Africa’s largest retail bank by customer numbers (22 million as of February 2024) – initially took to X to report it was experiencing service issues on all its banking channels.
The group said it experienced significant disruptions across all of its banking channels early in the morning, citing a global downtime incident involving global cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike.
“We are currently experiencing nationwide service issues, affecting all services,” Capitec said in a post. “We are working hard to resolve this. Your patience and understanding are greatly appreciated. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.”
At the same time, global reports of service disruptions affecting multiple businesses hit local and international media outlets.
One article, by US technology website The Verge, said thousands of Windows machines were experiencing a “blue screen of death” at boot, impacting businesses worldwide.
A faulty update in cybersecurity software from vendor CrowdStrike was identified as the cause of the disruption.
Absa Group also said in a post on X that its digital banking channels, point-of-sale services and ATMs are all functional and access to its rewards hub is now restored.
The lender, which also operates across Africa, added that the technical matter relating to the global outage has been resolved.
With airlines, state-owned South African Airways said in a post on X that it was experiencing an intermittent technical outage at its contact centre, meaning that customers contacting the airline for new bookings, changes, or ancillary purchases will experience a longer hold time.
Privately-owned regional airline, Airlink also informed its customers in a post on X that its entire IT network, including telephone lines, is currently down due to the global network outage.
Customers of FlySafair were struggling to pay for flights with their bank cards on its website, with the low-cost airline responding on X that the “technical issues are affecting all card payments.”