Umhlobo Wenene goes off air, SABC apologises

The SABC has apologised to the nation after Umhlobo Wenene went off air because of blackouts on Monday morning.

The broadcaster confirmed that the station, which caters to the Xhosa-speaking community, had gone offline 

“The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) would like to apologise for the disruption of broadcast services on Umhlobo Wenene from early this morning,” a statement read.

The outage was apparently due to an explosion at a power substation near the broadcaster's Port Elizabeth offices.

To restore services “the station is currently broadcasting from the outside broadcast vehicle and the technical team is working on fully restoring the broadcast services,” the broadcaster added.

Meanwhile, social media was in meltdown mode as music instead of programming played .