Sony announced over the weekend that it would begin a phased restoration of the PlayStation Network immediately.
On Sunday morning it was confirmed via the European PlayStation Blog that users would for the first time in weeks be able to log in to the PlayStation Network, and that they would be prompted to download a new firmware update and change their PSN login details.
The first service to be restored is online multiplayer functionality. Additional services will become available over the next week.
South African PS3 users are now able to download the new firmware update and change their passwords. We can also confirm that we were able to play online, and other local users have indicated that they have been able to access this portion of the PSN.