Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane was expected to host a webinar on the effects of COVID-19 on vulnerable members of society when hackers disrupted the digital meeting.

JOHANNESBURG - A video meeting hosted by the Department of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities has been hacked on Wedneday, with journalists seeing pornographic images instead.

Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane was expected to host a webinar on the effects of COVID-19 on vulnerable members of society when hackers disrupted the digital meeting.

The department's Shalen Gajadhar said the session was made public to increase attendance on the video conferencing app Zoom but hackers then took control of the screen and displayed pornography.

Gajadhar said the department had since increased its security measures.

“We would like to unreservedly apologise for the incident where we had unsavoury characters getting into the scheduled Zoom meeting and have shared nude images and propaganda. About 400 people had indicated interest to join the meeting and we couldn’t vet them because we had received requests just prior to the meeting."