Parliament's Zoom meeting hacked with porn images, racial abuse

07 May 2020 - 09:50
By ANDISIWE MAKINANA
Thandi Modise was racially abused by a hacker during a virtual parliamentary meeting on Thursday.
Image: Sunday Times Thandi Modise was racially abused by a hacker during a virtual parliamentary meeting on Thursday.

The National Assembly programming committee's meeting was hacked with porn images on Thursday morning, with the hacker also racially abusing speaker Thandi Modise who was chairing the virtual meeting.

The meeting had barely started at 9am, literally 50 seconds in, and was still dealing with the first item on the agenda when porn images appeared on the screen.

This happened as DA chief whip Natasha Mazzone was proposing an agenda item to discuss the functioning and running of parliament's virtual meetings.

"This is exactly what I said about Zoom!" exclaimed a shocked Modise.

With everyone expressing their shock and disgust, and wondering what to do next, more images and videos appeared on the screen. The entire meeting took about four and a half minutes.

For the last 30 seconds of the meeting, a man's voice could be heard insulting Modise. He repeatedly made sexually offensive and racist comments directed at her. 

Parliamentary spokesperson Moloto Mothapo said arrangements were being made to set up a new meeting.

The meeting later restarted - on a new link.