Scebi Thabiso Nene, who pleaded guilty to cyber forgery, cyber uttering, and disclosing intimate image data, has been jailed for five years in the Pietermaritzburg Regional Court for distributing pornographic images with overlaid faces of President Cyril Ramaphosa and former Police Minister Bheki Cele.
According to The Citizen, evidence was that, between September 2022 and May 2023, Nene downloaded pictures of several people, including Ramaphosa, Cele, and former National Police Commissioner General Khehla Sitole.
He then overlaid sexually explicit images onto their faces.
National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) regional spokesperson Natasha Ramkisson-Kara is quoted by The Citizen as saying: “This created a false impression that the images were the authentic images of the complainants. Nene then disseminated these manipulated images.
“The National Prosecuting Authority views offences of this nature in a serious light. We advise members of the public to use technology with caution and due regard for the consequences.”
According to evidence, Nene had made the images after struggling without success to get the police to take him seriously for suspecting that he was being followed.
[Image: Xavi Cabrera on Unsplash]