4 November 2005 CITY EXPERIENCES DELAYS IN ISSUING CLEARANCE CERTIFICATES The City has experienced serious delays in issuing Clearance Certificates due to a sustained number of virus attacks on the City's server over the past two months. Clearance Certificates are legally required by all sellers of properties to confirm that there are no outstanding municipal charges on the property being sold. According to Revenue Department spokesperson Mandy Jean Woods the system problems have caused about a 3-week delay in issuing of Clearance Certificates. "We receive between 7 000 and 7 500 applications for Clearance Certificates each month and we presently have about 3 800 applications outstanding, equal to about a three-week delay," she says. The problem is compounded by the fact that the City's utility agencies (Johannesburg Water, City Power and PikitUp) use the same database and are therefore have also been compromised as their data is essential to finalising clearance figures. The data is also all kept electronically so it is not even possible to prepare the figures manually. "We are very mindful of the impact this is having on our customers but unfortunately we are in the hands of our IT department, and they themselves have been working furiously to contain the virus attacks. I guess no matter how good your systems and firewalls all companies and institutions are susceptible to virus attacks," says Woods. There is no indication yet of when these attacks may be contained. "We apologise to all our customers and appreciate their patience while this issue is resolved. We are doing everything we can to process Certificates speedily." Issued by: Mandy Jean Woods General Manager: Marketing and Communications Department of Revenue, City of Johannesburg Phone: 358-3420 Fax: 358-3423 Cell: 082 553 4211 (Please send sms if urgent) Email: mandyw@joburg.org.za