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Cape Town – If you get an email from pravin.gordhan@gmail.com ordering you to pay your taxes, it’s definitely not from the Minister of Finance, even if he would likely support such a notion.
The National Treasury made it clear in a statement on Friday that the finance minister definitely does not have a gmail account.
This comes as the department “noted Facebook and email accounts purporting to belong to the Minister of Finance Pravin Gordhan and Deputy Minister of Finance Mcebisi Jonas respectively”.
“We would like to warn the public that the accounts in the public domain are intended to deceive, confuse and damage the image of the both the minister and deputy minister of finance as a person and an institution.
“The public is advised to exercise caution when they are approached online by people claiming to be the minister or the deputy minister as such correspondence is used as a tool to defraud them.
“Minister Gordhan does not have a gmail account and Deputy Minister Jonas does not have a Facebook or Twitter account.
“The public is advised to visit www.treasury.gov.za and click on Twitter and Facebook links to access the institution’s official social media accounts.”
The use of fake government social media accounts and email accounts has been growing in South Africa, with various ministries sending media warnings about the use of these accounts.
The previous fake twitter account stemming from Treasury targeted its four-day minister Des van Rooyen. On January 7, the fake Van Rooyen tweeted: “There is no truth to rumours I will be replacement captain of the national cricket team. I will not be made a puppet of colonial interests!”
“The Minister of Finance, … van Rooyen wishes to place on record that a Twitter account which goes by the handles @douglavanrooyen or @daviddvanrooyen and purporting to be … van Rooyen and using his picture is neither his nor that of his office,” said the ministry in a statement on December 11.
