The newly assigned role of the State Security Agency to co-ordinate the implementation of the government's cybersecurity initiative and the relevant structures that need to be established does not empower the Agency to control the internet.
This was one of the issues raised at a media briefing hosted by South Africa's Department of Justice and Constitutional Development in Pretoria this week to introduce a revised Cybercrimes and Cybersecurity Bill, approved by Cabinet and soon to be tabled in Parliament.
According to the Deputy Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development, John Jeffery, the Bill aims to put in place a coherent and integrated cybersecurity statutory framework to address shortcomings which exist in dealing with cybercrime and cybersecurity.
The proposed legislation covers the creation of offences and prescribing penalties related to cybercrime, regulation of jurisdiction, as well as the powers to investigate search and gain access to or seize items in relation to cybercrimes, regulation of aspects of evidence, establishment of various structures to deal with cybersecurity and the identification and declaration of National Critical Information Infrastructures and measures to protect these infrastructures.
The Bill criminalises cyber-facilitated offences, data messages that incite damage to property, and inserts a new section in the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Related Matters) Amendment Act, 2007 to criminalise the harmful disclosure of pornography or 'revenge porn'. It also covers new offences that will mean child pornography is now comprehensively criminalised in legislation.
The Bill was made available for public comment in 2015, and a working group was appointed to offer advice.
Misperceptions
Deputy Minister Jeffery spoke of issues of oversight and RICA (Regulation of Interception of Communications and Provision of Communication-related Information Act) and in a prepared statement said that it was incorrect to equate search and seizure under clause 27 of the Bill as an extension of "surveillance powers".
"The provisions for obtaining a warrant to obtain information are similar to what is already in the criminal procedure act, those granted by magistrates in terms of the criminal procedure act. So it's not adding any powers of surveillance," the Deputy Minister said.
"I know one of the problems with the earlier draft was that was this sort of hype which I was trying to address in the statement, of government – particularly state security - taking over the internet ... and it's just not here. I challenge you to find it... there is a chapter on powers to investigate, search, access or seize, those powers are effectively subject to a warrant being issued," he added.
The Bill does not provide for the monitoring of cyberspace said Jeffery .
According to the Deputy Minister's statement, while people have expressed concern that some of the offences in the Bill may adversely affect the work of computer professionals (since the Bill criminalises the manufacturing, use and distribution of hardware and software tools used by these persons), the intended legislation can never be interpreted to prohibit the lawful use of these tools.
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