HARARE – The Judicial Service Commission (JSC) has made claims its website was hacked after internet activists using the Twitter handle, Team Pachedu weekend exposed damning revelations the government institution was paying US$119,450 in services to a website developer.
On Sunday, Team Pachedu claimed on Twitter that they obtained information from the JSC website claiming that the Commission’s software developer Kudzanai Machemedze was “milking” JSC by billing US$119,450 for IT security and ZWL 413,530 (US$5,000) for website development.
JSC, on the other hand, issued a public statement on Monday, dismissing the information disseminated by Team Pachedu arguing it was in fact uploaded by hackers and Team Pachedu was seeking to establish “false narratives”.
The commission further argued that Kudzai Machemedze was never at any time an employee of the commission
“Kudzanai Machemedze is not and has never been employed by the Judicial Service Commission. He was studying towards a BSc Information Systems Honours Degree with the Midlands State University and he applied for Industrial attachment with the JSC on 5 May 2021.
“He was on attachment as a student with the JSC from May 2021 to November 2021. He was a student on training, he therefore did not have capacity at all to design or build websites, let alone being involved in JSC procurement processes.
“The quotations and billing invoices which are being attributed to the JSC by Team Pachedu were allegedly issued in 2020. Without admitting that they are genuine, these documents were issued well before Kudzanai Machemedze started his industrial attachment with the JSC in May 2021,” read the statement.
Team Pachedu, on the other hand, refuted JSC’s claim with images and links with a digital footprint purporting that Kudzanai Machemedze created the JSC backend system, website, and Helpdesk currently in use at JSC.
In a four part series of Tweets, Team Pachedu further stated the evidence they posted unearthed the files on JSC server were last modified in 2021, not 2022 as purported by JSC.
Team Pachedu has also been going toe to toe with the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission exposing the poll administers’ anomalies in the voters’ roll as the 2023 elections beckon. – ZimLive
