Preliminary investigations into the offending messages directed to the City’s defaulting customers have identified the culprit who formulated them. The foul messages, which in part threatened to harm customers, purported to be official correspondence from the City.
The City of Tshwane issued an apology last Friday for the foul content of the messages, despite having established that those messages did not originate from any of its official communication platforms. The City apologised out of respect for its valued customers.
The identified culprit is an employee of one of the service providers contracted to the City for debt collection. The service provider has since placed the said employee on precautionary suspension pending further investigation. The company has also committed to conduct an internal forensic investigation, the outcome of which will be shared with the City.
We wish to reassure all our clients, members of the public and all other interested stakeholders that our cybersecurity control systems remain intact. All confidential and/or privileged information remains protected.
We wish to apologise once more for the foul content of the said messages alleged to be from the City.