A Twitter account of South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) party was hacked Tuesday, with someone using the handle to announce the removal of South African President Jacob Zuma in a series of tweets.
The announcement came via a series of tweets posted on the account @ANCJHB Tuesday morning. The tweets have since been deleted.
Three tweets posted just before 12pm said that the decision was taken during an National Executive Council Meeting (NEC) held last night and that the announcement would be made during a meeting which – it said – was scheduled for 11am today.
We note that someone has hacked into our account and posted that the President has been recalled..it's not true
— ANC Greater Johannesburg Region (@ANCJHB) December 15, 2015
Zuma came under scrutiny after he fired two finance ministers within a week. In a written announcement late Sunday, Zuma reappointed as finance minister Pravin Gordhan, who held the post 2009-14. The announcement came after days of market turmoil and deafening calls for Zuma to reconsider his earlier appointment of a little-known lawmaker, David van Rooyen, for finance minister Thursday.
The decision to replace former Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene with van Rooyen, who has no experience in finance, sent the rand currency to record lows and bond yields to the highest in seven years. The move also provoked individual calls that Zuma resign. The Unite Against Corruption (UAC) campaign has called on the public to occupy the Nelson Mandela Bridge in Johannesburg Wednesday morning for a so-called Zuma Must Fall march. The group is demanding for Zuma’s resignation and for the government to act immediately to counter corruption.
“We call upon all those affected by corruption to support the demand that #ZumaMustFall, whether by his own hand or by the decision of the African National Congress,” the UAC said in a statement Tuesday.
