In what a Moneyweb report describes as an an unprecedented move, Transnet Port Terminals (TPT) declared force majeure yesterday following the ongoing fallout from a cyber-attack last week which hit the entire Transnet Group.

While the group has tried to play down the hacking – initially describing it as a ‘disruption on its IT network’ – TPT’s confidential force majeure letter to customers yesterday confirmed that it is ‘an act of cyber-attack, security intrusion and sabotage’.

Moneyweb says the force majeure notice was contained in a letter titled ‘Declaration of force majeure for Transnet Port Terminals container terminals in the Ports of Durban, Ngqura, Port Elizabeth and Cape Town – confidential notice to customers’.

It was sent out by TPT chief executive Velile Dube.

This is a major blow for Transnet Group, with TPT being one of its biggest and most important divisions.

TPT operates the container handing facilities at Durban – sub-Saharan Africa’s busiest container port – as well as container terminals in Cape Town and the Eastern Cape ports of Ngqura and Port Elizabeth.

The websites of Transnet and its divisions were still offline yesterday – for the sixth day.

The group had resorted to a manual system in an effort to continue to operate key divisions, such as TPT. However, with further trucking delays, especially at the Port of Durban (which handles over 60% of SA’s container traffic), TPT seems to have had no option but to institute force majeure.

Full Moneyweb report

Movement in and out of SA’s ports is at a near standstill as employees are forced to stop working and stay off the company’s digital systems for fear of further leaks of sensitive information.

There is also the risk that the majority of Transnet’s more than 55 000 employees will not be paid salaries due today, says a Daily Maverick report.

Last week, Transnet said its IT applications had been compromised, forcing it to shut them down to identify the source of the attack.

At various ports and on its rail system, the company had restored to ‘manual operations’, it said, slowing down its ability to receive and offload containers from ships and trucks.

It is unclear whether or not the cyberattack was part of a ransomware sting in which hackers gain access to sensitive information, disable systems linked to it, and threaten to make the information public if they are not paid a ransom, usually in hard-to-trace blockchain currencies or digital tokens.

In an internal e-mail sent to Transnet employees yesterday, Transnet said the attack was ‘unprecedented’ and had brought the company to a standstill.

The e-mail said that all non-operational employees would be required to take leave from Monday until Thursday, and that workers with insufficient annual leave days would have them deducted from their next leave cycle.

‘At this juncture, no employee is allowed to access Transnet’s network, e-mail or (Microsoft) Teams applications, or any other systems like SAP HCM, where all employee data is stored and maintained and the platform that we use to pay our employees,’ read the e-mail sent to employees by Transnet’s human resources division.

The company told workers yesterday it was still trying to resolve the IT situation, according to SA Transport and Allied Workers’ Union general secretary Jack Mazibuko, whose union is one of the major labour representatives at the freight utility.

‘We emphasised to them that this must not affect employees’ salaries. They assured us that salaries will be paid tomorrow (today),’ Mazibuko said, notes the DM report.

The chief executive of the Fresh Produce Exporters’ Forum, Anton Kruger, said the delay at ports would compound the revenue losses for fruit sellers.

‘The cyberattack has a huge impact on the export of fresh produce. The port terminals are not operational and thus no stock could be loaded. It’s peak citrus export season. We have already lost about 12 days, given the KZN unrest coupled with the cyberattack,’ Kruger said.

Gavin Kelly, CEO of the Road Freight Association, said cargo ferried by trucks was also feeling the pinch.

‘This is creating massive delays and creating unreliability of the movement of goods across all modes of transport,’ Kelly said. ‘The gates to ports are closed, which means no trucks are moving in either direction. The manual processes being used are also creating problems in terms of operations. Road freight operators already have a huge backlog resulting from last week’s civil unrest.’

Full Daily Maverick report