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#OpSouthAfrica : To the staff and students of South African Academia

A Message to the staff and students of South African Academia.

In the wake of today’s revelation that confidential data containing student and staff information was taken from your institution and distributed on the Internet, we, those involved in Anonymous Operation South Africa felt it critical that we make a clear and concise statement.

While in the next few days it will become obvious that we have appealed to help from the Anonymous collective to expose the corruption in this country, and to shed light on the descecration of our human rights by a corrupt regime, we do NOT condone the form of behavior that was seen today.

Anonymous is made up of hundreds of thousands of individuals, the vast majority of which have a collective ethos of fighting corruption, oppression and censorship. We believe in freedom of information and believe that the Internet should be free without government censor and control. We believe that the elite few should not have the right to enrich themselves at the expensive the poor. We believe that corruption should be exposed and those that cause pain to others in order to enrich themselves should be brought to book. We believe that globally the systems are failing us as the masses, with governments the world over attempting to censor and regulate that which they fear most, the free flow of information.

Those individuals in Anonymous South Africa who are involved with this operation also believe firmly that education is key to the upliftment of this country, and there is no excuse for the state of the academic sector in South Africa at the moment, as caused by the incompetance of the current ruling party.

Therefore, we would like to send a clear message, we condemn the actions of any group that attacks the academic sector. We condemn the actions of those attack innocent companies who are simply trying to get by. We condemn violence. We believe in peaceful resistance through words, and through the distribution of information that is censored only to assist the corrupt. We applaud those who stand up censorship, corruption and violent conduct through peaceful means and peaceful civil disobedience.

I would ask you and the whole of the South African society therefore not to judge all of us under the umbrella of the few that choose to break away from the stated cause in search of their own twisted amusement.

As has been distributed to the media, we once again state the following:

We the legion do not seek war with the South African government
We the legion do not seek the downfall of the South African government
We the legion do not seek the resignations or downfall of any innocent individuals

We the legion do however seek to expose the corruption
We the legion do however seek to show the world that without change, the blood spilt in the cause of freedom will have fallen in the desert, where it is absorbed with no gain
We the legion do however seek to show the world that the liberators have become the oppressors

We the legion ask, nay, demand, that a culture of accountability and adherence to our constitution is reintroduced.
We the legion demand an end to censorship by the state
We the legion demand an end to the culture of corruption within our police force
We the legion demand our children be granted the education guaranteed by the constitution
We the legion demand an end to the theft of tax payers money by corrupt officials
We the legion demand that the voices of the people be heard.

We are without race, without tribal affiliation, without association with any South African political party.

We are Anonymous
We are Legion
We do not forget
We do not forgive
Expect us