Microsoft outage disrupts email and workplace services across South Africa

Kenya Power has reported disruptions to its email services following a global outage affecting Microsoft 365 applications, such as Outlook, Teams and Copilot. The utility stated that the technical issues have temporarily hindered its ability to respond to customer inquiries submitted via email. Kenya Power informed its customers, "We are experiencing disruptions to our email services due to a global Microsoft outage. As a result, we are temporarily unable to respond to customer queries submitted via email."

The disruption follows ongoing efforts by Microsoft to restore services, which were reportedly impacted by connectivity problems. Microsoft has clarified that the outage was not the result of a cybersecurity incident. Users across various countries have reported differing levels of disruption, with some users unable to send or receive emails, access certain files, or view information on their calendars. However, others have noted that they can still access Teams and utilize its messaging and online meeting features.

The extent of the outage remains uncertain, although Microsoft 365 boasts over 430 million users globally, according to the company’s website. Downdetector, a service disruption tracker, has logged approximately 140,000 reports of Outlook problems from 74 countries on Thursday evening. The true number of affected users may be higher, as the platform primarily relies on users reporting service interruptions.

The outage is also impacting businesses and organizations that rely on Microsoft's cloud-based services for their day-to-day operations. Technology companies OpenAI and Anthropic have also experienced service issues related to the disruption.