/ 9 April 2000

HACKERS BACK MUGABE

HACKERS have threatened to destroy a South African student web site unless it removes a game in which blobs of oil are squirted on Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe. A group called “Hackers for the People” made the threats against the Get-a-Life site (www.gAL.co.za) unless the “Squirt Diesel at Bob Mugabe” game was removed by Friday, site spokesman John Kuhn said. The group, unknown to the site organisers, also threatens to destroy other South African web sites, he said. It had remarked in untraceable e-mail to the site: “When will you whiteys learn … you aren’t wanted,” Khun said. The website had been hacked 10 times since the posting last month of the game and a student petition calling on the South African government to take a stronger stance against Zimbabwe.