Cybercrimes Act, 2020

This section is a heading for word definitions and interpretation in Chapter 2 on cybercrimes and related matters.

Section title: Wederregtelike toegang.

Section 3 concerns unlawful interception of data.

This section is about unlawful acts involving software or hardware appliances.

Section title: unlawful interference with data or a computer program.

This section lists cybercrime offences, including unlawful interference with computer data storage media or computer systems, unlawful acquisition or use of passwords or access codes, cyber fraud, cyber forgery and uttering, and cyber extortion.

Section heading for aggravated offences; no operative rule is stated in the provided text.

It is an offence to unlawfully intercept data, possess unlawfully intercepted data in some circumstances, or use or possess software/hardware tools for those offences.

The provision makes it an offence for any person to unlawfully and intentionally interfere with data, a computer program, a computer data storage medium, or a computer system, and to handle passwords or access codes for the purpose of committing specified cyber offences.

This section defines “password, access code or similar data or device” to include items such as security tokens, PINs, images, access cards, biometric data, and certain words or character strings used for authentication or access.

A person commits cyber fraud if they unlawfully and with intent to defraud make a misrepresentation using data or a computer program, or by interfering with data, storage media, or a computer system, and this causes actual or potential prejudice to another person.

This provision makes cyber extortion an offence and also creates an aggravated offence where the conduct involves a restricted computer system.

This section creates offences for cyber fraud, cyber forgery, and cyber uttering when a person acts unlawfully and with intent to defraud.

A person who unlawfully and intentionally commits or threatens certain offences for gain or coercion commits cyber extortion. A person also commits an aggravated offence if those offences involve a restricted computer system and the person knew or should have known that.

A person who commits certain cybercrime offences and knows, or should reasonably know, the harm risk can be guilty of an aggravated offence; prosecutions need written authorisation by the Director of Public Prosecutions with jurisdiction.

The offence of theft must be interpreted to include theft of incorporeal property.

This provision is about a data message that incites damage to property or violence.

Section 15 concerns a data message that threatens persons with damage to property or violence.

Section 16 is titled “Disclosure of data message of intimate image” and sits in Part III on attempting, conspiring, aiding, abetting, inducing, inciting, instigating, instructing, commanding, or procuring the commission of an offence.

This section defines several terms used in Part II, including “damage to property,” “disclose,” “group of persons,” “related person,” and “violence.”

A person must not use an electronic communications service to send a data message to incite violence or damage to property; doing so is an offence.

This section makes it an offence to unlawfully and intentionally disclose a data message through an electronic communications service, and it also covers aggravated offences linked to certain serious risks. Prosecutions under subsection (1) or (2) need written authorization from the Director of Public Prosecutions.

The common-law crime of theft must be interpreted so that it does not exclude theft of incorporeal property.

This section defines several terms used in Part II, including property damage, violence, group of persons, disclose, and related person.

A person commits an offence if they publish a databoodskap through an electronic communication service with the intention of inciting property damage or violence.

A person must not unlawfully and intentionally disclose an intimate image data message of another person by electronic communications service without that person’s consent.

This section refers to acts such as attempting, conspiring, aiding, abetting, inducing, inciting, instigating, instructing, commanding, or procuring the commission of an offence.

Any person who intentionally tries, agrees, or helps another person commit a Part I or Part II offence commits an offence.

This section concerns an order to protect a complainant while criminal proceedings are being finalised.

This provision is a heading for orders on the finalisation of criminal proceedings.

This section is titled “Application of Criminal Procedure Act, 1977.”

This section is about an article that may be searched for, accessed, or seized under a search warrant.

Section 30 is titled “Oral application for search warrant or amendment of warrant.”

Unlawful interference with a computer data storage medium or computer system.

Section heading about unlawful acquisition, possession, supply, receipt, or use of a password, access code, or similar data or device.

This section is titled “Verswarende misdrywe” (aggravating offences).

Section 12 is titled “Theft of incorporeal property” and appears under Part II on “Malicious communications.”

This provision is titled “Databoodskap wat beskadiging van eiendom of geweld aanhits” and refers to a data message that incites damage to property or violence.

This section concerns messages that threaten people with property damage or violence.

Section 16 is titled “Openbaarmaking van databoodskap van intieme beeld” (disclosure of an intimate image message).

Section 18 is titled “Geoorloofde uitsprake” and sits in Part V, “Vonnisoplegging”.

This section is titled “Vonnisoplegging” and appears to introduce rules on protective orders for complainants, duties of electronic communications service providers to give details to court, sentencing at the end of criminal proceedings, penalties, jurisdiction, and powers of investigation, search, access, or seizure.

Section 25 is titled “Woordomskrywing” (word definition).

Section 28 concerns searching for, accessing, or seizing certain items.

This section concerns searching for, accessing, or seizing an item under a search warrant.

Section 30 concerns an oral application for a search warrant or an amendment of a warrant.

Section 31 concerns searching for, accessing, or seizing an item without a search warrant, with consent of a person who has lawful authority to consent.

This section is titled about searching for, accessing, or seizing an article involved in an offence without a search warrant, and about search, access, or seizure on arrest of a person.

Section 34 is titled “Assisting police official or investigator.”

Police officials or investigators are to exercise their powers in a decent and orderly way, with due regard to other persons’ rights.

This text lists section headings for several offences and directions, but does not state the operative rule in full.

This section is about oral applications for a preservation of evidence direction.

This section is about disclosure of data direction and the search for, access to, and seizure of articles, subject to preservation.

Section 45 is titled “Obtaining and using publicly available data or receiving data from person who is in possession of data” and appears in Chapter 5, Mutual Assistance.

This section defines “access” and “investigator,” and requires senior police authorities to issue directives for police work on offences committed outside the Republic.

This section defines “beslag lê” (seizure), “ondersoeker” (investigator), and “toegang” (access) for this Chapter.

The policing minister must issue Standard Operating Procedures after public consultation within 12 months, and those procedures must be followed by the South African Police Service and other authorised investigators in specified cybercrime investigations.

This is a section heading for the application of Chapter provisions and related chapter topics.

Sections 48 to 51 apply alongside Chapter 2 and concern preserving electronic articles or other evidence about certain offences.

Sections 48 to 51 apply additionally to Chapter 2 and deal with preserving electronic items or other evidence about certain offences. The National Commissioner, the National Head of the Directorate, and the South African Police Service may share or receive information with foreign-state law-enforcement agencies, subject to confidentiality and use limits.

Foreign requests for cybercrime assistance must go through the designated Point of Contact, the NDPP, and usually the Cabinet member before a designated judge can make orders.

Certain recipients must comply with designated-judge orders, and officials must serve, execute, and report on those orders.

Section heading on obligations of electronic communications service providers and financial institutions to have capacity to detect, prevent, and investigate cybercrimes.

The National Director of Public Prosecutions must keep statistics of prosecutions.

This provision concerns searching for, accessing, or seizing an item involved in the commission of an offence without a search warrant.

Section 33 concerns searching for, accessing, or seizing an item when a person is arrested, and assistance to a police officer or investigator.

Police officers or investigators must exercise their powers properly and orderly, with due regard for other people’s rights.

Section title about unlawful searching, access or seizure, and limits on using an instrument, device, password, decryption key, or access information.

Section 38 concerns false information under oath or by solemn declaration.

This section concerns a prohibition on disclosing information.

This section is titled as dealing with interception of indirect communication and obtaining real-time communication-related information, plus expedited preservation of data and preservation of evidence.

Section 43 concerns an oral application for an order to preserve evidence; section 44 concerns an order for disclosure of data and for search, access to, and seizure of items subject to preservation.

This section heading refers to acquiring and using publicly available data or receiving data from a person in possession of data.

This section concerns compliance with an order of a designated judge.

This section concerns notifying a foreign state about the outcome of a request for mutual assistance and the expedited disclosure of traffic data.

This section is titled about issuing a notice to request mutual assistance from a foreign state.

This section concerns obligations of electronic communications service providers and financial institutions.

This section is about the capacity to detect, prevent, and investigate cybercrimes.

The National Director of Public Prosecutions must keep statistics of 45 prosecutions.

This text identifies Section 8 of the Cybercrimes Act, 2020, under Chapter 9 (General Provisions).

The Cabinet member responsible for policing must build cybercrime response capacity, train police, and report annually to Parliament. The National Director of Public Prosecutions must keep and report prosecution statistics. Electronic communications service providers and financial institutions face an offence and fine if they fail to comply with subsection (1), but are not required to monitor data or actively look for unlawful activity.

The National Executive may make agreements with foreign States on cybercrime cooperation, and a member of the National Executive must publish notice in the Gazette after Parliament agrees to specified agreement changes.

The National Executive may enter into agreements.

This section repeals or amends the laws listed in the Schedule, and it requires certain regulations and Gazette notices to be made.

The Justice Minister must make regulations covering several court-application and notice procedures, related affidavits, service methods, information to court, provider notifications, and fees. The section also says listed Acts are repealed or amended to the extent shown in the Schedule.

The Minister responsible for policing must make regulations about reporting offences to the South African Police Service, and may make further regulations on related matters. The President fixes when the Act starts.

This section amends other laws: it adds items to Schedule 5 of the Criminal Procedure Act, 1977, and deletes section 71 of the South African Police Service Act, 1995 and section 24B of the Films and Publications Act, 1996.

This section amends related laws by adding certain Cybercrimes Act contraventions to a Schedule 2 item when the amounts involved exceed specified thresholds, and it deletes several sections from other Acts.

The National Executive Authority may conclude agreements.

Section heading for repeal or amendment of laws.

This section gives the short title and defines key terms used in the Act.

This section defines terms used in the Cybercrimes Act.

This text defines several terms and makes unauthorised intentional access to a computer system or data storage medium an offence.

A person who unlawfully and intentionally tries, conspires, or helps another commit an offence in Part I or Part II commits an offence and can be punished as if they had committed it themselves.

If the evidence does not prove the charged cyber offence, the accused may still be found guilty of a listed alternative offence that the evidence does prove.

This section sets sentencing rules: certain contraventions carry fixed maximum imprisonment terms, and courts must consider electronic means and resulting loss as aggravating factors in some cases.

Courts must impose direct imprisonment for certain cyber offences unless substantial and compelling circumstances justify another sentence, and a complainant may seek a protection order to stop disclosure of a harmful data message or require its removal.

People covered by section 20(1)(a) and certain electronic communications service providers may ask the court to set aside or amend an order within 14 days, and the court must consider the application quickly.

Courts can require an electronic communications service provider to give specified information within five ordinary court days, and the provider may seek extra time or cancellation in some cases.

After certain cybercrime convictions, the trial court must make orders to stop sharing the data message, destroy it or have it removed, and non-compliance is an offence.

A person who ignores a subpoena-type requirement commits an offence, and convicted persons under sections 14 to 16 may be ordered to repay certain reasonable expenses.

Convicted persons or electronic communications service providers may be fined, imprisoned for up to two years, or both; courts must also order reimbursement of certain reasonably incurred costs after convictions under sections 14, 15, or 16.

A person or electronic communications service provider convicted of certain offences is liable to a fine, imprisonment for up to two years, or both.

This section lets certain prosecutions for offences committed outside the Republic go ahead only with written permission from the National Director of Public Prosecutions, and requires the prosecution to start in a court that Director designates.

The Criminal Procedure Act, 1977 applies alongside this Chapter, unless it conflicts with this Chapter.

A police official may search, access, or seize an article in the Republic only under this Chapter, and warrants for search, access, or seizure are issued by a magistrate or High Court judge under stated conditions.

This section says the Criminal Procedure Act, 1977 applies alongside this Chapter if it is not inconsistent with it, and it allows a police officer to search for, access, or seize items in the Republic.

Police officials can make oral search-warrant applications in urgent or exceptional cases, and must give affected people copies of the warrant and written application after execution.

Police may search or seize without a warrant only in the consent and urgent-circumstances cases described here, and warrant-related paperwork and review steps must follow strict requirements.

Police officials may search or access certain computer data and seize-related powers, but usually need a search warrant; investigators may assist if written authorisation is given.

The provision requires certain people to help police with authorized searches, limits how police may search and use force, and creates offences for obstruction or unlawful search conduct.

Police officials and investigators must stay within the warrant and destroy covered data when required; giving false sworn information that leads to certain warrants or directions is an offence.

This section bars specified persons and service providers from disclosing information obtained under Chapters 4 or 5, with listed exceptions, and sets criminal penalties for intentional unlawful breaches. It also requires interception and real-time communication information to be handled under directions issued under the cited interception law.

A specially designated police official may issue an expedited preservation of data direction, and the affected person, service provider, or financial institution must comply with it.

Courts and police can require certain persons, service providers, or financial institutions to preserve data or an article for a limited period, and disclosure of data to police is barred unless section 44 authorises it.

People, service providers, or financial institutions who do not comply with a preservation of evidence direction commit an offence; police officials may use an oral application in urgent or exceptional cases, and must follow up in writing within 48 hours.

Police officials may apply to a magistrate or High Court judge for a disclosure of data direction, and the application must include specified details and supporting grounds.

This section lets police obtain a disclosure of data direction, requires the named person or institution to provide the identified data in the required form and time, and creates offences for false statements or non-compliance.

A police official may use publicly available data to investigate offences, and may issue a data disclosure notice.

A police official may receive and use non-publicly available data if it is voluntarily disclosed by the person in control of the data, subject to confidentiality and use-limitation conditions set by that person.

The National Director of Public Prosecutions must notify certain authorities of the outcome of a request for assistance, and traffic data shared under an order must be routed with specified documents and then given to the requesting foreign authority.

A magistrate may issue a foreign-assistance direction for certain cybercrime-related evidence, and the National Commissioner and designated Point of Contact must support and carry out the cooperation process.

This provision lets qualifying affidavits or declarations serve as prima facie proof for certain technical facts, but false statements can lead to criminal liability. It also lets the policing minister make regulations and requires annual reporting on the designated Point of Contact.

Certain service providers and financial institutions must report relevant offences to the South African Police Service quickly and preserve helpful information; courts also have discretion to require oral evidence or written questions about affidavits or declarations.

This provision repeals sections 85 to 88 of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act, 2002, and replaces section 89 with penalty rules. It also allows certain law enforcement or authorised persons to record what they observe or hear during apprehension or lawful presence on premises if notice and identification requirements are met.

This provision lists offences that are contemplated for section 27, including certain offences under the Cybercrimes Act and one under the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Related Matters) Amendment Act.

A judge or magistrate may issue an archived communication-related direction only if the listed reasonable-ground conditions are met.

This provision amends the Act by renaming the Schedule as Schedule I and adding new listed items, including certain offences and a R200 000,00 threshold for some offences.

This section amends related schedules and indexes, including adding Schedule II and setting a R50,000 threshold for certain Cybercrimes Act offences and similar foreign offences.

This section adds and updates definitions used in the Cybercrimes Act, including terms for disclosure of pornography and electronic communications.

This section adds and changes defined terms used in the Cybercrimes Act.

It is an offence to unlawfully and intentionally disclose pornography without the subject’s consent, to threaten such disclosure in harmful circumstances, or to threaten disclosure to obtain an advantage.

A complainant may ask a magistrate’s court for a protection order about certain alleged pornography-related offences, and the court may order removal or blocking of the material if the stated conditions are met.

The court must serve the order on the specified person or service provider, and affected recipients may ask for it to be set aside or amended within 14 days after service.

A court may adjourn certain protection-order proceedings if the relevant person's or service provider's details are unknown, and failing to comply with a required order or subpoena can be an offence.

A court may direct an electronic communications service provider to give it specified information by affidavit in the prescribed form.

The court must serve the direction on the electronic communications service provider in the prescribed way, and the requested information must be given to the court within five ordinary court days after service.

Electronic communications service providers or their employees must provide required information to court within five ordinary court days (or any court-approved extension), and false material affidavits or late non-compliance are offences.

This section adds duties to report suspected section 19A offences to the South African Police Service and sets penalties for breaches of sections 11A and 11B.

This section sets criminal penalties for contraventions of specified Cybercrimes Act provisions, including fines and imprisonment terms that vary by offence and conviction count.

This section amends penalties and Schedule 2 by adding an item for certain Cybercrimes Act offences.

This section lets a court order a person to destroy pornography and file an affidavit, or order an electronic communications service provider to remove or disable access to it.

The trial court may subpoena a witness or documents if needed for a just decision, a subpoenaed person commits an offence if they do not comply, and the court must order reimbursement of certain reasonable expenses after conviction for the listed offences.

This section refers to an offence contemplated in section 11A(3) of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Related Matters) Amendment Act, 2007.

This provision lists other legislation and sections that are being referred to, including the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Related Matters) Amendment Act, 2007 and certain sections of the Cybercrimes Act, 2020.

This provision refers to section 11A(3) of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Related Matters) Amendment Act, 2007.

This source text is a Government Gazette header, not a substantive rule.