Bad news for South Africa’s crippled courts

Ongoing problems with the Department of Justice’s (DoJ) IT services following September’s ransomware attack are causing chaos in magistrate courts and Master’s offices throughout South Africa.

Earlier this month, the department released a statement indicating that it had “made strides in recovering from the ransomware attack that occurred in September 2021”, but the problems are far from solved.

Almost two months after the ransomware attack, courts are still unable to function correctly, and state attorneys are still unable to use their email, with GroundUp reporting that many are resorting to Gmail accounts.

Magistrates cannot access their laptops, and a few have taken to delivering handwritten judgments and court orders, an attorney told the publication.

Those who have received judgements in their favour cannot implement them as the system through which official court orders are provided is still not working.

Courts are also unable to record or transcribe hearings, resulting in the postponement of many cases.

The department has made progress in restoring the Master’s Integrated Case Management System (ICMS), which is intermittently accessible, according to a press release from the Fiduciary Institute of South Africa (Fisa).

It also seems the Master’s Office can receive external communications but whether all external messages are received remains unclear.

Louis van Vuren, CEO at Fisa, said that the public should be made aware of further delays to be expected with several already lengthy processes.

These include, but are not limited to:

• the provision of Letters of Executorship
• the provision of Letters of Authority
• the approval of liquidation and distribution accounts in deceased estates

“Trusts have also been badly affected,” van Vuren said.

“New or replacement trustees are not authorised which, if the trust deed requires a certain minimum number of trustees, means that the investment portfolios of trusts cannot be rebalanced and can be impacted negatively by market movements.”

“In addition, testamentary trusts cannot be registered, leaving minor children without maintenance while new charitable trusts can also not be registered.”

He added that these issues would have a significant impact on the South African economy and society.

MyBroadband contacted the Department of Justice for comment, but it did not respond by the time of publication.

The Information Regulator previously reported that personal details might have been compromised — which the department later confirmed.

Department of Justice director-general advocate Doctor Mashabane said that at least 1,200 files may have been compromised.

The information in these files included:

• Names, addresses, identity numbers, and phone numbers of information officers
• Names, residential addresses, identity numbers, phone numbers, qualifications, bank accounts, and salaries of employees
• Names, DoJ’ssses, and bank details of the service providers

The ransomware attack that crippled the DoJ’s IT system occurred on 6 September 2021, disrupting all of the department’s electronic services, including bail services, letters of authority, email, and website.

“Our IT teams are working tirelessly to restore services as soon as is practically possible,” the department said in a public statement.

MyBroadband received information that the attackers had demanded a ransom of 50 bitcoin — now around R47.5 million. However, the department disputed this.

While the DoJ confirmed that it had suffered a ransomware attack, it indicated that the attackers had not given a specific ransom amount in the message they left on the compromised systems.

According to the DoJ, as of 20 September 2021 it had not received any ransom demand.

Democratic Alliance MP and former prosecutor Glynnis Breytenbach has said that the disruption to the Master’s Offices is a significant concern as it does not have enough staff to operate manually.

“We need to get these systems back up and running. The Master’s office is so dysfunctional this is going to be the last straw,” she said.

South Africa’s higher courts fall under the Office of the Chief Justice and were not affected by the ransomware attack that has taken down the Department of Justice’s IT systems.

---

Now read: New law puts restrictions on private security companies in South Africa — and it’s bad news