The Law On The Prohibition Of Possession Of Pornography

A lot of debate has been taking place after the conviction of Robert Martin Gumbura on pornography possession charges.

It has send smut-lovers into a panic wondering what would happen if a snoopy cop happened to detain their phone and then have them thrown in the slammer for having possessing self-encouragement videos.

Well this is the law, section 26 of the Censorship and Entertainment Control Act

27 Prohibition of possession of prohibited articles
(1) No person shall, without lawful excuse, have in his possession any—
(a) publication, picture, statue or record that is indecent or obscene or
prohibited; or
(b) recorded video or film material on which is recorded a film that is
indecent or obscene or prohibited.
(1a) Any person who contravenes subsection (1) shall be guilty of an offence and
liable to a fine not exceeding level six or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding
one year or to both such fine and such imprisonment.

So when you have the porn in your phone and you have no legal reason to possess it, the cops can nab you and throw you in the slammer for up to a year. Unless of cause you have a ‘lawful excuse’ – personal use is not one of them from what we see.

Yep that smut you get from T1 at your nearest service station can get you into trouble.

Incidentally there is a section – 13(2) – on literature and music:

(2) A publication, picture, statue or record shall be deemed to be undesirable if it or
any part thereof—
(a) is indecent or obscene or is offensive or harmful to public morals;

Does this mean that the board gave an OK to 50 Shades of Grey to be sold in book shops. And for music from R Kelly’s sex-laden album Black Panties to be played?

Thanks to Batanai Tuwe for helping us with this.