South Africa ANC Twitter Hack: President Jacob Zuma Not Removed From Office, African National Congress Says

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. “We took the painful decision to recall the ANC Pres from his position as head of State and the President of the Republic of South Africa,” one of the tweets stated, before they were deleted, according to BBC News.

Upon regaining control of the account, the Johannesburg office of the ruling party subsequently confirmed its Twitter handle had been hacked and Zuma had not been removed from his presidential post.

But that didn’t stop people from taking screenshots of the hacker’s tweets and posting them on social media.

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.