Note to editors: Please find attached English and Afrikaans soundbites by Cllr Dirk Kotze and Sesotho by Cllr David Masoeu.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality has been overwhelmed by complaints from residents that they are unable to get assistance from municipal officials when enquiring about their municipal accounts. Councillors were also unable to communicate with officials via email for the past week. Law firms have complained that they are unable to receive clearance certificates from the municipality. The excuse used by the officials is that the server has been off since Tuesday 24 October.
According to our findings, it is alleged that the Mangaung information system has been hacked and held to ransom for an amount to be paid in Bitcoin. Ransomware is malware designed to deny a user or organization access to files on their computer.
Since Tuesday, 24 October, the community have yet to receive official communication from the communication manager, Qoundile Khedama on why the information system is offline.
The DA raised concerns in 2019, questioning the integrity of the information system after the system was down for two weeks and no contingency plans were in place for business to continue if the information system crashed. In July 2018, the Mangaung Metro experienced a system failure due to the lack of maintenance on several systems servers. The DA called on the Audit Committee Chairperson, Mr Mahlatsi, to request an independent forensic audit after the system crash.
The DA confirmed that during the period of April to June 2018, the service provider for maintenance was not paid. Only after the system crash, the account of the service provider was paid up to date.
The DA also raised their concerns that the MMM has not appointed a permanent Chief Technical Officer (CTO) since 2018. The CTO should oversee and handle technological operations within the municipality. The MMM advertised the vacant position in November 2022 but was unable to fill the position after the 90-day period for appointment had lapsed.
ANC cadre deployment is putting the municipality at risk. The Metro finds itself in a financial crisis due to mismanagement and gives more reason for residents to register for the upcoming National and Provincial elections in 2024 and remove the ANC.