ASSOCIATION NEWS
News snippets from around the world Zuma slapped with summons to pay back R18m in legal fees The Jacob Zuma Foundation on Thursday confirmed the receipt of a summons that the former president pays back R18 million used to fund his personal legal costs. Zuma lost an appeal at the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) back in April and was ordered to pay back the money. www.citizen.co.za
Government can’t borrow R70bn to increase public servants’ salaries
South Africa’s security sector is in crisis – immediate reform is needed to ensure national stability As the dust settles on insurrection, government must acknowledge the urgent need to repurpose a failing security system. The attempted insurrection of the past week affirms the extent to which South Africa suffers from debilitating political, social and economic pathologies. With high unemployment, inequality, poverty, xenophobia and racism, the country will face internal security problems for years to come. Add to this declining regional stability due to the insurgency in Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province and events in Eswatini, and it’s clear that South Africa’s security system must urgently be repurposed for the tasks at hand. First published by ISS Today and then www.dailymaverick.co.za
World’s leading ransomware gangs have created a cybercrime “cartel” Several of Russia’s largest ransomware cybercriminal gangs have partnered up and are sharing hacking techniques, purloined data-breach information, malware code and technology
8
SECURITY FOCUS AFRICA JULY 2021
infrastructure. The most active collaborators are four groups known as Wizard Spider, Twisted Spider, Viking Spider and LockBit. The gangs in this cluster jointly control access to illicit data leak sites and custom ransomware code. They also associate with the larger criminal ransomware ecosystem, exert influence over smaller gangs and license their tools to affiliates, said Jon DiMaggio, chief security strategist at Analyst1. The groups do not appear to share profits from criminal activity. “They’re not a cartel in the traditional sense, like oil companies that have a lock on the supply of crude,” DiMaggio explained. “But they do have technology infrastructure, and some are big enough to have their own [ransomware] code.” www.cbsnews.com
Fake news uptick aimed at South Africa’s judiciary South Africa’s judiciary has been hit by a flurry of fake news reports, which has forced it to clarify the wave of disinformation in the past two weeks. The latest is a list circulating on social media, purportedly containing judges shortlisted for judicial vacancies by the Judicial Service Commission (JSC). www.iol.co.za
Public Service and Administration Minister Senzo Mchunu has warned that the government would have to borrow over R70 billion to comply with the agreement to increase public servants’ salaries it failed to honour last year. Mchunu filed his written submissions ahead of next month’s Constitutional Court battle between unions representing state employees and the government over the failure to increase their salaries in 2020. The agreement reached at the Public Service Co-ordinating Bargaining Council (PSCBC) in 2018 would have seen salaries increase by between 4.4% and 5.4% agreed with effect from 1 April 2020. www.iol.co.za
Transport MEC Daylin Mitchell closes Route B97 between Paarl and Bellville MEC of Transport and Public Works has decided to close route B97 between Paarl and Bellville, currently the cause of conflict between taxi associations Cata and Codeta, who both claim to have the right to operate on the route. The decision follows his publication of notice in the Government Gazette dated 9 July (Government Notice 416 of 2021) that Bellville and Paarl are areas in respect of which extraordinary measures in terms of Section 91 may be made. Over 80 people have died since the start of the year due to the conflict over the route. Thousands of commuters were left stranded after minibus taxis pulled and buses followed suit after the violence spilt over. Now buses
securityfocusafrica.com
