Scebi Thabiso Nene (35), accused of distributing pornographic images with overlaid faces of the president & minister of police. Photo: National Prosecuting Authority (NPA)
Was there a difference from the University of Cape Town student Chumani Maxwele who was arrested in 2010 for giving former president Jacob Zuma’s convoy the middle finger, the rape of Lady Justice cartoon, to the man who made pornographic material with the president and police minister’s faces edited in?
Yesterday, Scebi Thabiso Nene, 35, appeared in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court for distributing pornographic images with overlaid faces of President Cyril Ramaphosa and Police Minister Bheki Cele.
“He is facing two counts of crimen injuria after he sent the pornographic images with overlaid faces of Ramaphosa, Cele, and his wife to a complainant who reported the matter,” said National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson Lumka Mahanjana.
Nene was charged under Section 16 of the Cybercrimes Act. Nene was arrested by the Hawks on Sunday.
Mahanjana said the matter will now be transferred to Pietermaritzburg where the accused will be back in court next Tuesday.
ALSO READ: Man nabbed for porn images overlaid with images of Ramaphosa, Cele
Political analyst Piet Croucamp said one should treat this type of practice with humour, sarcasm and irony.
Croucamp said some of it could depict the reality that people create a context in which politicians were viewed in society.
“It will be very hostile to the principle of democracy and constitution if politicians can protect themselves from humour, sarcasm and irony,” he said.
Law expert Dr Llewelyn Curlewis said, generally speaking, it was unlawful to commit any action constituting crimen injuria.
“In other words, the intentional and unlawful doing that prejudice or harm another person’s integrity, good name or body,” he said.
Criminologist Jaco Barkhuizen said it violated the Protection of Personal Information (Popia) Act and Cybercrimes Act. Barkhuizen said the context of the images was important to understand the intention.
“We need to know the motivation behind it. But using deep fakes to create a pornographic image of people is a problem internationally,” he said.
Barkhuizen said with the rapid growth of artificial intelligence and the easy accessibility to programmes to construct deep fakes, it will happen more often. “Popia Act and cybercrime law need to be modified,” he said.
READ MORE: Man arrested for pornographic images with overlaid faces of Ramaphosa, Cele remanded in custody
– marizkac@citizen.co.za
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