Prank message on website an ‘oversight’
Department website manager Zolile Somkhence said the message was put up by their website developer to see if the page was working.
"When the website was up and running they forgot to delete that page," Somkhence said.
He said they would not take action against the company, Simo Solutions, as it was 'also our responsibility to check on the error message when we maintain the website'.
"I can see the person who wrote the message just did it for a laugh," Somkhence said.
The message told visitors that the page was down for a variety of reasons, some of which read:
l The page is on holiday and will be out of the office until next week or when it feels like coming back;
1. The page was considered redundant and was given a raise so it now works even less;
2. The page performed an illegal operation and was promoted to vice-president;
3. The page was on strike. We are busy negotiating with the unions now for better wages so it can come online;
4. The page is running late. This could be because the taxis need to collect at least another 404 passengers, and
5. The page is sleeping. After all, this is African time we are talking about.
East London-based Simo Solutions sales and marketing director Zakhe Madala confirmed the mistake.
"In order for the developers to check the functionality of the site they just populate it with irrelevant information to check that it works.
"This was the case with the error message, and unfortunately it was not deleted when the site was handed over to the department in 2006."
Madala said the person who came up with the message had a 'sense of humour'.
"He's very apologetic; we all are. We apologise to the department for any inconvenience this may have caused.
It was simply an oversight. The page has since been removed.
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