Janet Smith
If you’re thinking of sharing your copies of Seymore Butts Meets the Pleasure Girls and Sluts and Angels in Budapest with your coterie of fellow porn-lovers, think twice. The South African Police Services (SAPS) in Port Elizabeth – which had obviously had enough of pornography being peddled with scant regard for the law – succeeded in getting 29 racy movies banned in the week of February 16 to 20.
While all 29 contained “endless shots of penetration and ejaculation”, according to the Committee of Publications, none featured necrophilia, zoophilia or paedophilia, which are now commonly accepted as being the only remaining illegal sex acts in this country.
All 29 films resemble exactly the kind of material you would find in your corner sex- shop, but this blitz by the Port Elizabeth police has shown that pornographic films are still illegal until approved by the committee – or until the Film and Publications Act of 1996 comes into force this year. This ruling includes movies which would be regarded by most adults as soft- core, featuring sexual intercourse and close-up shots of male and female genitalia.
The committee remains compelled to examine material submitted to it which is believed to be in contravention of the Publications Act of 1974, by which it is still bound. Judgment must, therefore, be passed against films such as Sodomania, Double Penetration VI and Butt Sluts.
A representative of the Directorate of Publications in Cape Town says that while South African adult stores certainly do stock a wide range of similiar video titles, most of these are unlikely to have been viewed by the committee – which would have been even less likely to allow them back into the marketplace once seen. Therefore, most titles could still be regarded as illegal.
When the Film and Publications Act of 1996 is finally passed, films classified as pornography will be required to carry an X18 age restriction.
The 29 films are the only titles to have been found undesirable in terms of the Publications Act of 1974 since the beginning of the year, and the spokesperson says the “interim” censorship period in which South African now finds itself is to blame for the hiatus in bannings.