A person purporting to be a part of online hacker collective Anonymous has posted a message and video appealing to the wider hacktivist community and the world in general to speak out against the actions of the South African government.

In the video, the person (at one point they refer to themselves as “I” indicating that they’re not speaking for a group in particular), cites the gunning down of 34 striking miners last year, and the alleged spending of taxpayer money on South African president Jacob Zuma’s personal household as signs that the ruling African National Congress (ANC) has gone from liberator to oppressor.

Initially it seemed there were a couple of indications however that this might not be a completely legitimate Anonymous operation. The message came as a plea for help (which was spread to the media) rather than a call to action. Even when Anonymous does send out a call to action, it usually does something first — hacking, or at least defacing, a prominent site.

Memeburn has since learned however of the existence of a pastebin with what appear to do be confidentail databases relating to private and state-owned entities showing a message similar to the one sent by the purported Anonymous member.

The pastebin itself provided another interesting nugget of information. The document claims that the database hacks were the work of Team GhostShell:

“Team GhostShell has finally managed to fingerprint the entire top business infrastructure of South Africa, tracing some of its activities to other countries across the continent,” it says.

For anyone unfamiliar with the hacking world, Team GhostShell is the group behind a massive hack that affected the sites of the FBI, NASA, Pentagon and others late last year.

A glance at the group’s Twitter account shows a tweet linking to the same pastebin, potentially lending the claim a shred of legitimacy. Anonymous and Team GhostShell are known to be friendly toward each other. It should be noted however that GhostShell has not said anything relating to the message sent out from the person purporting to be a part of Anonymous.

Update: The original person claiming to be from Anonymous has distanced themselves from the GhostShell attack, apparently because it contained databases of student information from South African tertiary institutions. “We, the group communicating with you, would like to condemn these attacks in the strongest possible terms, as we believe they serve little purpose to the cause and ethos that we are sworn to”, it says. “We are sworn to fighting corruption and uplifting the country, and that especially applied to the academic sector”. The full statement can be found at the bottom of the article.

We have asked a number of the more prominent Twitter accounts associated with Anonymous if the person behind the message and hack is legitimate, but have yet to receive any response.

Original statement:

Hello Citizens of the Media, We are Anonymous, and we have turned our focus on the corrupt practices in South Africa. For two long we have watched in silence as tax payers money is stolen, as blood is spilled, as the police turn a blind eye, instead choosing to line their own pockets. So now, the eyes of the collective will turn, look at South Africa, and then expose that which we see the world at large. To this end, we have published the following call to the masses to assist us. Mass distribution and drawing attention to this video will commence shortly via various means. … That being said, it is critical that the people of South Africa and the world understand our philosophy and our fight, and as such, we would like to state the following: We the legion do not seek war with the South African government

We the legion do not seek the downfall of the South African government

We the legion do not seek the resignations or downfall of any innocent individuals We the legion do however seek to expose the corruption

We the legion do however seek to show the world that without change, the blood spilt in the cause of freedom will have fallen in the desert, where it is absorbed with no gain

We the legion do however seek to show the world that the liberators have become the oppressors We the legion ask, nay, demand, that a culture of accountability and adherence to our constitution is reintroduced.

We the legion demand an end to censorship by the state

We the legion demand an end to the culture of corruption within our police force

We the legion demand our children be granted the education guaranteed by the constitution

We the legion demand an end to the theft of tax payers money by corrupt officials

We the legion demand that the voices of the people be heard. We are without race, without tribal affiliation, without association with any South African political party. In addition to this, we say this to you, a Citizen of the Media. For security reasons we are limiting our messages to media outlets that have been hand selected. Questions can be addressed to this email address and will be answered as promptly as possible. Lack of response will force us to assume that your publication is not infact interested in this story and we will remove you from our list of media contacts. Remember – The Corrupt Fear us, The Honest Support us, The Heroic join us We hope to hear from you We are Anonymous

We are Legion

We do not forgive

We do not forget

EXPECT US

Second statement: