A group claiming to be part of hacktivist network Anonymous says it has launched a cyber attack on SABC websites.

The main SABC website as well as other websites belonging to the public broadcaster – such as that of 5FM and SAFM – were either unavailable or slow to load on Sunday around midday.

A Twitter account belonging to a group dubbed Anonymous Africa has claimed responsibility for the downtime.

Anonymous Africa said it is carrying out the attack in light of alleged censorship at the SABC.

SABC chief operating officer Hlaudi Motsoeneng has controversially moved this year to block the broadcaster from displaying visuals of the burning of public property.

Motsoeneng has also come under fire for pushing a sunshine news editorial policy at the SABC, which involves showing more good news stories.

“Attacks against all SABC entities now underway,” said a tweet from Anonymous Africa on Sunday.

“You have heard of the Arab Spring? Well now its time for the #African Summer!” Tweeted Anonymous Africa.

The Twitter account further said on Sunday that it had carried out a ‘Distributed Denial of Service’ (DDos) attack against the broadcaster.

This type of cyber attack involves flooding a website server with thousands of requests that eventually disrupt the website.

Meanwhile, SABC spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago on Sunday afternoon said the broadcaster was still looking into the alleged cyber attack.

“I need to check with the head of IT,” Kganyago told Fin24 when he was contacted for comment on Sunday afternoon.

At 14:50, the SABC and 5FM’s websites were still down.

Update

Anonymous Africa stated it would stop the attacks at 16:00, but that it was “not done yet”.

We will stop the attacks at SABC (for now) at 4pm. We are not done yet, lots of action coming. Things are going to get wild! — Anonymous Africa (@zim4thewin) June 12, 2016

Initial reporting by Fin24

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