Hours after a South African newspaper revealed that the lavish lifestyle of ANC Youth League (ANCYL) president Julius Malema was being bankrolled by a secret trust fund, the organisation’s website has been hacked.
The hack takes the form of a banner across the top of the site and shows a laughing Malema with silhouetted masses gathered behind him. Alongside the picture is the text “HA HA HA I have a 16 Million Rand house [sic]And all of you don’t!!!”. Clicking on the banner directs users to a page of comments in support of the league’s controversial policy of nationalising South Africa’s mines.
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The youth wing of South Africa’s ruling party has been beset by internet security issues in recent months. In March this year, a fake post was put on the page claiming that Malema was going to step down as president of the organisation.
At the time of writing, the league had not taken down the banner, nor had it commented on the hack.
The story which prompted the attack had, however, received some attention. A statement on the story suggests that the league views it as part of a series of “continued attempts by sections of the media and right wing political parties to divert attention of the ANCYL and South African society through spread of pathetic lies”.
Alongside hacks like the ones which the organisation has experienced recently, the ANCYL has a checkered online history.
The most infamous instance of this arose from its reaction to the existence of a fake Malema twitter account late last year. In an open letter, the league famously threatened to “closer (sic). Twitter if its administrators are not able to administer reports for violation of basic human rights and integrity”.
In the aftermath of this statement, the number of fake Malema accounts kept growing until it was impossible to tell which, if any, belonged the real Julius Malema and which belonged to the original, fake Julius Malema.
