Johannesburg's City Power confirmed on Thursday that it was the target of a ransomware virus that had encrypted its computer databases, applications and network.
"The virus has attacked our database and other software, impacting most of our applications and networks," said City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena.
He likened the incident to a "black out" of their IT systems, adding that an IT team had been working since 1am on Thursday to fix the problem.
"This has affected our customers' ability to vend, that is buying electricity, uploading invoices or accessing our website," Mangena said.
"It may also affect our response to some outages, as the system to order and dispatch material is affected."
He said they were hoping to find a solution by Thursday afternoon.
"We apologise to the customers for the inconvenience this is causing to them."
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