Courtesy Mybroadband
South Africans using social media platforms and private messaging platforms like WhatsApp are being cautioned about what they say online as it could have severe consequences.
Strata-g Labour Solutions industrial relations consultant Nombuso Ndlovu recently said that employees required to use WhatsApp for work purposes must be mindful of how they conduct themselves on the platform.
She warned that careless postings could easily cost someone their job.
For example, messages that inadvertently or purposefully leak confidential information or share explicit content with staff or work WhatsApp groups could get people fired.
Ndlovu said there had been recent reports where employees were dismissed for sharing explicit information in a staff or work WhatsApp group.
“There’s a standard of accountability and professionalism that is expected from an employee, especially when communicating on a workplace platform,” Ndlovu said.
This standard includes honesty and trustworthiness.
She explained that posting a WhatsApp status of yourself attending a social function while on sick leave could have severe professional consequences.
“There is a practical example I’ve recently dealt with where an employee posted themselves at a function when they had submitted a medical certificate stating they were off sick or booked off incapacitated,” she said.
Such misconduct could cause employers to take disciplinary action.
She said that depending on the severity of the offence and how the organisation views it, the disciplinary action may result in an employee’s dismissal.
However, getting fired might be the least of someone’s worries as certain types of posts could lead to prison time.
The Cybercrimes Act, which President Cyril Ramaphosa signed into law in 2021, defines three types of harmful messages that have been criminalised in South Africa.
This is in addition to dealing with the offences of cyber fraud, forgery, extortion, and theft of incorporeal property.
Under the Cybercrimes Act, it is illegal to post messages that:
- Incite damage to property or violence
- Threaten people with violence or property damage
- Unlawfully contain an intimate image
The Act describes an intimate image as both real or simulated. Therefore, “deepfakes” where someone else’s face is superimposed onto a nude image is also a criminal offence.
Even if the person is not identifiable in the image, this offence applies if the message identifies the person in the text or in other information contained in the message.
Regarding incitement to violence or property damage, the Act defines “violence” as bodily harm, and “damage to property” as damage to corporeal or incorporeal property.
As an extension of the above, the Act also makes it an offence to distribute messages that threaten a group of people with violence or damage to their property.
Group-identifying characteristics include, but are not limited to, race, gender, sex, pregnancy, marital status, ethnic or social origin, sexual orientation, age, disability, religion, culture, language, and nationality.
The crime of threatening a person or group with violence was further expanded when Ramaphosa signed the Preventing and Combating of Hate Crimes and Hate Speech Act into law in May 2024.
The Hate Crimes Act’s purpose is to provide for the offences of hate crime and hate speech and the prosecution of people who commit those offences.
It defines hate speech as intentionally publishing material that can provoke or promote hate.
Hate speech can take the form of any written, illustrated, visual display, utterance, representation or reference, or electronic communication.
At the same time, the Act stipulates that hate-based offences are where the offender is driven by prejudice towards a victim from specific or perceived characteristics.
Among other things, these include age, albinism, birth, colour, culture, disability, ethnic or social origin, gender or gender identity, HIV status, language, nationality and migrant or refugee status, occupation or trade, political affiliation or conviction, race, religion, sex, or sexual orientation.
The Act specifies that it does not apply to anything done in good faith, such as:
- Artistic creativity, performance, or other form of expression
- Academic or scientific inquiry
- Fair and accurate reporting or commentary in the public interest
- Interpretation and proselytising or espousing of any religious conviction, tenet, belief, teaching, doctrine or writing.
Regarding punishment for offences, the bill states that convicted individuals could face a fine, up to five years imprisonment, or a fine and jail time.
While Ramaphosa has assented to the Hate Crimes Act, he has yet to proclaim a date for the law to come into operation.
