https://zimbabwe.misa.org

Cybersecurity and Cybercrime
Laws in the SADC Region

The SADC model law

As intimated earlier, the SADC model laws include: Data Protection, Electronic Transactions and
Electronic Commerce, and Computer Crime and Cybercrime. The SADC Model Law on Cybercrime,
which was launched in 2012, seeks to guide and facilitate the harmonisation of domestic laws on
cybercrime. It was adopted in 2013 as part of the Harmonisation of the ICT Policies in Sub-Saharan
Africa project (HIPSSA) project. Ever since, the promulgation of the model law some member states
have enacted or are in the process of enacting, cybercrime-related legislation.
The aim of the Model Law on Computer Crime and Cybercrime is to offer guidance on how cybercrime
and cybersecurity can be regulated by the SADC member states. The SADC Model Law, which was
produced 8 years ago, identifies offences that can be incorporated into national laws for the combating
of cybercrime. These offences include illegal access, interception, data interference, espionage, forgery,
fraud, pornography, xenophobic material and disclosure of details of an investigation.
On the issue of interception of data and preservation of metadata, the model law stipulates the following:
If a [law enforcement] [police] officer is satisfied that there are grounds to believe that computer data

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Select target paragraph3