THE Judicial Service Commission has found false information on the Twitter handle @PacheduZW, operated by what is referred to as ‘Team Pachedu’, who have been lying and saying the information on the handle is downloaded from the JSC website.
The Commission manages an interactive website which is used to share content with litigants and members of the public on the operations of the courts and the commission. This website is still secure and the website does not host information relating to the personal details of its staff members in any way whatsoever, nor does it handle JSC procurement.
So the information Team Pachedu is using did not come from the JSC website and was created by people trying to harm the JSC.
“It has come to our attention that there is a Twitter handle, @PacheduZW, operated by what is referred to as ‘Team Pachedu’ which has been sharing some information which they purport to have uplifted from the JSC website. We wish to inform the public that the information they are sharing which they purport to have accessed through the JSC website is false.
“We state hereunder some of the false narratives. Kudzanai Machemedze is not and has never been employed by the Judicial Service Commission. He was studying towards a BSc Information Systems Honours Degree with the Midlands State. He applied for and was given an industrial attachment with the JSC from May to November 2021.
“He was a student on training. He therefore did not have capacity at all to design or build websites, let alone being involved in JSC procurement processes. During the Covid-19 era there were travel restrictions imposed by the Government to contain, combat and prevent the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Courts were declared essential services and members of staff were therefore required to go to work. For ease of travel, members of the Judicial Service were issued with letters which they would produce to the authorities.”
The Commission said the letters were given out as a hard copy and were never posted on the JSC website because they were not part of the regular information shared in the public domain by the JSC.
It said the quotations and billing invoices which were being attributed to the JSC by Team Pachedu were allegedly issued in 2020.
“The Judicial Service Commission never procured any services for cyber security as alleged. Even if it did, the Judicial Service Commission follows laid down procurement processes which do not involve assigning students on attachment to do procurement on its behalf.
“Procurement documents are delivered in hard copy form and subjected to rigorous procurement processes before they are submitted for payment through a Government payment system known as Paynet. This process and the documents thereto are not posted on the JSC website.”
The Commission has also dispelled allegations that they received money from Government through Treasury.
“The allegations that we received and posted on our website an invoice of USD $119 450 for cyber security are therefore false. Government through Treasury never paid for the alleged USD$119 450.
“The information purported to have been accessed on the JSC website by ‘Team Pachedu’ has not been accessed from official information on the JSC website but has been posted by ill-meaning intruders to spin their malicious narrative. The contents of that information are patently false and meant to mislead members of the public”, said the Commission. – The Herald
