A KwaZulu-Natal man has been sentenced to five years imprisonment after he was found guilty of circulating pornographic images that he had altered to include the faces of President Cyril Ramaphosa, former Police Minister Bheki Cele, and his wife Thembeka Ngcobo.
Scebi Nene, 36, was sentenced by the Pietermaritzburg Regional Court on Friday after pleading guilty to cyber forgery, cyber uttering and disclosing intimate data images.
KZN’s National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson, Natasha Ramkisson-Kara, said that between September 2022 and May 2023, Nene downloaded numerous pictures including Ramaphosa, Cele and his wife, as well as the former National Police Commissioner Khehla Sithole.
“Nene then downloaded images of a sexual nature and superimposed these images onto the images of the complainants. This created a false impression that the images were the authentic images of the complainants. Nene then disseminated these manipulated images,” said Ramkisson-Kara.
Ramkisson-Kara said that in his plea, Nene explained that he was employed by Coca-Cola between 2018 and 2019, and during this period, he had a feeling that people were following him; he decided to report this to the police.
“Police told him to observe if this happens again and come back to them. Nene said that he still found that he was being followed and reported this at two other police stations, but said his claims were dismissed.
“He said that he thereafter approached the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) and the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (HAWKS), but nobody took him seriously. Subsequently, he decided to contact the office of the former Minister of Police, Bheki Cele, but still received no assistance,” said Ramkisson-Kara,
Feeling let down, Nene downloaded the images of the complainants and the images of a sexual nature and superimposed the two. He also admitted to distributing the images.
Nene said that he was remorseful and had undertaken not to commit a similar offence again in the future.
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