The Department of Justice and Constitutional Development (DOJ&CD) says that some functionality of the MojaPay system has been recovered and most child maintenance payments have been processed.
The payments were made on 15 September 2021 and the money is expected to reflect in beneficiary accounts in the next few days.
The department’s IT systems were hit by a ransomware on the evening of 6 September 2021, leading to all information systems being encrypted and unavailable to both internal employees as well as members of the public.
As a result, all electronic services provided by the Department are affected, including, issuing of letters of authority, bail services, email, and the departmental website.
IT experts from the Department of Justice, industry partners and organs of state have been working to contain the problem and restore systems affected by the recent ransomware attack. So far, some critical systems have been restored, but the department can’t yet say when the whole system will be up.
Focused support continues to be given to courts across the country to ensure that court proceedings are not negatively affected by the IT system challenges. The Department’s IT team, working closely with IT Coordinators and Directors for Court Operations at the Regional Offices, has introduced standard operating procedures for manually operating the Court Recording Technology (CRT) systems to ensure that the safety of the court records is guaranteed. All courts are expected to operate normally without any challenges related to the CRT systems.
Masters Offices around the country continue to, as interim measure, use a manual process to provide bereaved families, in exceptional cases, where there is a need to access funds from the deceased’s banking account for burial costs. However, no manual letters of executorship or authority will be issued during this crisis period.
“The Department extends its most profound apologies to all users of justice services who are negatively affected by the current system challenges,” according to a statement. “The Department is doing everything possible to provide as many services as possible during this period.”