The public enterprises ministry said late on Wednesday that preliminary assessments showed that Transnet and its customer data had not been compromised by a recent cyberattack.

The state-owned logistics firm has restored operations at ports following the cyberattack that forced the firm to declare force majeure at its container terminals, the ministry said.

The department of public enterprises said late on Wednesday that the main system responsible for container operations had been restored and that the force majeure was under review with the intention to lift it in the coming days.

The cyberattack, which hampered container terminals at Transnet’s key ports of Durban, Ngqura, Port Elizabeth and Cape Town from Thursday last week, could cause backlogs and hamper exports from the region.

The ministry of public enterprises said Durban’s container terminals were fully functional while in the Eastern Cape the container operations were still being restored.

Transnet, which operates major South African ports, as well as railway networks that transport minerals and other commodities for export, said on Tuesday the force majeure for its container terminals would be lifted as soon as it had made significant progress in restoring its IT systems. — Reported by Tanisha Heiberg, (c) 2021 Reuters