South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) has said hacking group Anonymous will not be able to force it to change its policies through hacking, following last week’s attack on the party’s website.
HumanIPO reported last week Anonymous had targeted the ANC’s official website, having earlier also brought down the website of Independent Newspapers Online (IOL). Both victims are believed to have been targeted due to alleged support for Robert Mugabe and his Zanu-PF party in Zimbabwe.
Both attacks were carried out using the Distributed Denial of Service (DDS) technique, which directs large volumes of traffic onto a site until its server crashes.
Speaking to News24, ANC spokesperson Keith Khoza reaffirmed the party’s support for Mugabe.
“We support Robert Mugabe – as a person; as the ANC, we have fraternal relations with ZanuPF as a former liberation movement,” he said.
“There are things that Zanu has done that we do not agree with, but to the extent that we have shared trenches with them, we regard them as a fraternal organisation.”
Jackson Mthembu, national spokesperson for the ANC, said in a statement that the ANC would not be derailed from doing what it thought was right by hacking attacks.
“The African National Congress and the South African government, working through the South African Development Community (SADC), continue to work with the Government and people of Zimbabwe to assist them find their own lasting solution to the challenges facing that country,” he said.
“The African National Congress will not be deterred nor derailed in the efforts to assist, where requested, in Zimbabwe or elsewhere on the continent. 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.”
