Have you heard of Scebi Thabiso Nene? He may soon need your support.
Nene is a normal 34-year-old man from Pietermaritzburg in KwaZulu-Natal who played a stupid prank on his friends.
He downloaded pornographic images from the internet and overlaid the faces of the porn actors with those of President Cyril Ramaphosa, Police Minister Bheki Cele and his own wife.
Then he sent these photoshopped pictures via WhatsApp to his friends. One of them got upset and reported Nene to the police.
What happened next is extraordinary and an indictment of the state of the nation.
While you and I thought the Hawks were working around the clock to build dockets against those people whom Chief Justice Raymond Zondo implicated in state capture, they were actually preparing to swoop on a much bigger criminal who threatens the stability and future of our country: Scebi Thabiso Nene.
None less than the Hawks' Crimes Against the State unit, tasked with investigating organised crime, corruption and terrorism, assisted by the Serious Organised Crime team from Pietermaritzburg worked day and night to track a man who played a stupid schoolboy prank on his friends.
The police are yet to explain how on earth Nene's alleged crime is linked to organised crime and a crime against the state, but I guess it may have something to do with his choice of politicians' faces to superimpose on the pornographic actors.
Nene was arrested at his home in Azalea, Pietermaritzburg, and rushed to the Pretoria Magistrate's Court, where he was charged with crimen injuria (criminal defamation) and contravening the Cybercrimes Act.
The police apparently found a 'multitude of other pornographic images' on his phone, the Hawks reported. So what? It is not a crime to watch adult pornography in South Africa.
Apparently, the State wants to make an example of him by using the Cybercrimes Act, but section 16 of the act specifically refers to preventing the distribution of intimate images of a person, like in cases of revenge pornography.
I doubt the drafters of the act had a schoolboy prank in mind when they drew up the legislation.
Nene was remanded and his case was moved back to the Pietermaritzburg Magistrate's Court. It is unclear whether he is still in prison and why he needed to be brought to Pretoria in the first place. The word "intimidation" comes to mind.
This entire case smacks of an overreaction and abuse of power to please the political powers that be. We live in dangerous times when what Nene allegedly did is deemed by the authorities to be a crime against the state.
Another example of a threat against our constitutionally enshrined right to freedom of expression was the decision by Judge John Holland-Muter of the Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg last week to grant an interdict against amaBhungane in favour of controversial businessman Zunaid Moti ex parte.
amaBhungane, the independent investigative journalism outfit, has been reporting on Moti's alleged links to Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa, a country in which Moti runs a chrome mine.
A trove of thousands of documents was leaked to amaBhungane, on which its series of reports are based. Moti claims the documents were "stolen" by a former company legal advisor.
It is unfathomable why Holland-Muter agreed to hear the interdict application last week without amaBhungane being present to defend themselves.
He interdicted the journalists from publishing further stories from the documents and ordered the return of the documents to Moti in 48 hours.
The second part of the order was set aside on Saturday by Judge Solly van Nieuwenhuizen, who was asked by amaBhungane to overturn the interdict.
Van Nieuwenhuizen kept the interdict in place, pending a proper hearing of the case with both sides present, and said amaBhungane did not have to return the documents to Moti.
It is incredible that a high court judge (Holland-Muter) could make such a draconian order against the media without even hearing the other side. He should have called out the underhanded tactics of Moti and his lawyers.
Whistle blowers who provide information and documents are the lifeblood of investigative journalism. Think back to the arms deal scandal, Bosasa and the Gupta leaks. In each of those cases, it was courageous whistle blowers who provided inside information that exposed crime and corruption to journalists.
Holland-Muter's judgment has the potential to stifle media freedom and deter whistle blowers from coming forward. amaBhungane has said the return of the leaked documents to Moti will threaten to expose the source of their information.
Investigative journalists from publications like amaBhungane and News24 have been at the forefront of exposing corruption, state capture and the collapse of state infrastructure.
The courts must uphold and protect Section 16 of the Constitution that guarantees media freedom.
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