Unwembi Communications is taking the ANC to court over R32.5 million in unpaid bills for developing and hosting the party’s website and membership system.

In September, the ANC’s official website hosted at www.anc.org.za went offline and visitors were greeted by the message “No input file specified”.

This was later replaced with a more scathing message, referring to payment problems by the ANC:

This website is suspended due to non-payment by the service provider.

At the time, ANC spokesperson Pule Mabe claimed that the party did not have a contract with Unwembi Communications.

“The only reason why our website is down is because we are revamping it. It has nothing to do with us not paying people,” Mabe said.

The ANC did launch a revamped website in October, using a new domain anc1912.org.za, referring to the date when the ANC was officially formed.

Mabe’s claims that they their website downtime does not have to do with payment is, however, questionable.

Business Day reported that Unwembi Communications – the company which used to be in charge of the ANC website – is now suing the ANC for R32.5 million.

This, according to the report, consists of R26.5 million for the party’s membership system agreement and R6 million for its website.

The ANC said it will be opposing the legal action, adding that it has applied for the original domain name (anc.org.za) to be transferred to the party.

Unwembi Communications said they will gladly transfer the domain name to the ANC – all the party has to do is to pay its outstanding bills.

ANC website on 16 September

ANC website on 21 September

ANC website on 1 October

ANC Website on 19 December

Now read: ANC website reportedly taken down due to unpaid bills