Johannesburg - Activist group Anonymous Africa on Friday morning claimed responsibility for attacking the ANC's website.
The group, which communicates as @zim4thewin on Twitter, posted a tweet shortly after 10am saying “http://www.anc.org.za is tango down! for being corrupt and supporting the mass murdering mugabe #anc #africa #zimbabwe #anonymous”.
The ANC confirmed the attack on its site in a statement saying: “The African National Congress has noted that someone calling themselves Anonymous and claiming to be the legitimate representative of the people of Zimbabwe has flooded the website of our organisation.”
The ANC went on to say that as an organisation it was working “with the government and people of Zimbabwe to assist them find their own lasting solution to the challenges facing that country.
“Acts of deliberate sabotage such as the one on our website should serve only to strengthen the resolve of all stakeholders to constructively engage in a free and democratic manner.”
Shortly before 12pm the group posted on Twitter again saying “@MyANC_ we stopped, you can switch it back on now” and the site was restored.
Over the past two days the group has used a series of Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks to disrupt websites it believes are sympathetic to Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe.
On Wednesday Anonymous Africa attacked the IOL website, resulting in around two hours downtime for Independent Newspapers. The motive for the attack was an opinion piece carried by The Sunday Independent, one of the print titles in the Independent stable.
On Thursday the group targetted a range of Zimbabwean websites including that of Zanu-PF, the Herald newspaper and the Zimbabwe Revenue Service. - IOL