Publication: Cape Times Issued: Date: 2006-08-03 Reporter: John Scott Reporter: Reporter:

Only Dirty Bits in the Arms Deal could be Copulating Couples

 

Publication 

Cape Times
Date

2006-08-03

Reporter

 John Scott

Web Link

www.capetimes.co.za

 

Jacob Zuma is not the only person nonplussed by the inclusion of pornographic images among the four million documents submitted by the state in his fraud and corruption trial.

The whole nation cannot wait to see what relevance pictures of copulating couples might have to the arms deal. *1

The explanation could be a long time coming.

You can't wade through four million documents in a day, no matter how keen you are to get to the dirty bits.

But in the meantime, the defence team should shield the former deputy president's eyes from anything erotic.

As he confessed at a former trial, even a woman wearing a skirt could be viewed as a sort of invitation which, if turned down, might cause her serious offence.

That's the trouble with the new technology. Naked ladies can appear without warning on computers, cellphones and any number of other gadgets. I had a problem a while ago with so-called pop-ups. Every time I wished to access something on my laptop, a nude woman would flaunt herself and resist my attempts to click her off.

It was very embarrassing. I would be writing a column and my wife would come in to find me trying to suppress an irrepressible pornographic pop-up. "She won't go away," I complained.

"I don't think you're trying hard enough," said my wife.

Fortunately, I'm spared this sort of stuff on my cellphone. I don't even do SMSs, let alone send or receive images of people, whatever their state of undress.

But schoolchildren are experts, apparently. They are sending one another all sorts of material, unfit for adult eyes. Even in Bloemfontein.

Bloemfontein was the place many years ago where the swimming pool attendant went round with a tape measure to ensure that no boys or girls sat closer than 30cm together. Now schoolgirls there have photographed themselves kissing one another (it could have been worse) and transmitted the pictures to the boys' cellphones.

Younger children are far more moral according to a survey of their opinions on marriage. One of the questions put to them was: When is it okay to kiss someone?

Curt, aged seven, replied: "The law says you have to be 18, so I wouldn't want to mess with that."

Howard, aged eight, was even more aware of where a kiss could lead you: "The rule goes like this - if you kiss someone, then you should marry them and have kids with them. It's the right thing to do."

Fortunately for both children who know the right thing to do, and those adults who don't, the new technology is not foolproof. Charges have been dropped against a Western Cape official for allegedly visiting porn sites on his office computer for 600 hours, from July 8-29 last year. He was told there had been a "system error".

I'll say. There are only 504 hours in a 21-day period, even if, as a departmental spokesman confessed, they had also accused the wrong official.

Zuma could be the victim of a similar glitch.

With acknowledgements to John Scott and Cape Times.


The whole nation will have to wait under Armageddon to see any relevance pictures of copulating couples might have to the arms deal - because there is none.

The truth of the matter is rather more simple.

Various computers were seized during authorised search and seizures conducted on the premises of the Accused. More that one of these computers contained the material in question. The Defence demanded to be given full mirror images of the harddrives of these computers, with which the investigators complied. An important fact to remember is that these computers were not only used by the Accused themselves, but by members of their families and staff. One of the Accused has a very large extended family members of who regularly use the premises and computers subject to search and seizure.

But the whole nation will probably not have to wait until Armageddon to see other dirty bits coming out in the arms deal - because there is plenty.