A vital cog in the fight against child pornography is not functioning because of government dithering, Democratic Alliance child abuse spokesperson Mike Waters said on Tuesday.
”The Films and Publications Board (FPB) must screen magazines and video material for the presence of images depicting child pornography, but this task is not being properly carried out,” he said in a statement.
Little had come of the announcement by Deputy Home Affairs Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula that a hotline would be introduced for members of the public to report instances of child pornography to the FPB.
The proposal was that all calls would be channelled to a single centre, which would then act on the information, he said.
However, almost twelve months after announcing the hotline, it had yet to be introduced, despite a report on introducing it being in the possession of both the FPB’s chief executive Dr Nana Makaula and Mapisa-Nqakula for some time.
The long-awaited amendments to the Film and Publications Act had also still not been tabled in Parliament, even though they had been ready for over a year.
Waters said he intended to question the deputy minister on the issue in Parliament. – Sapa