The Sunday News
Simba Jemwa, Sunday News Correspondent
THE 63-year-old New Magwegwe man who was arrested last week for distributing porn on social media platform, WhatsApp has appeared in court and remanded out of custody to tomorrow.
Although Sydney Ndhlukula pleaded guilty, Western Commonage resident magistrate, Mr Shepard Mjanja placed him on further remand to allow him to verify the exact charge.
This is the second time that the matter has been set down due to a deficient charge sheet.
During Ndhlukula’s initial court appearance, the magistrate set the matter down while remanding the accused to last
Thursday and instructed the prosecutor to re-enter the charge.
However, when the matter returned to court on Thursday, Munjanja was still not satisfied with the charge and further remanded Ndhlukula while law officers look for the proper charge.
On Thursday, the State had changed its charge to contravening Section 13 (1) (a) of the newly promulgated Data
Protection Act as read with Section 2 (a) Censorship and Entertainments Control Act (Chapter 10:04).
Section 13 (1) (a) of the Data Protection Act reads: Sensitive information
(1) In relation to the processing of sensitive personal information —
(a) the processing of sensitive data is prohibited unless the data subject has given consent in writing for such processing;
Ndhlukula — who is employed by the Bulawayo City Council — was arrested after he distributed pornographic material on the WhatsApp social media platform and then insinuated that the woman in the image pictured nude having sex was Rose Dube, his neighbour in New Magwegwe.
Dube reported the matter at Magwegwe Police Station and Ndhlukula was hauled before the courts.
In further remanding him, Mjanja is seeking clarity on the charge and sentencing guidelines given that the Data Protection Act is new and Ndhlukula is probably the country’s first victim of the new Act.
Existing laws are currently being aligned with the Data Protection Act. — @RealSimbaJemwa
