New cell law 'will fight crime'

Johannesburg - New legislation requiring all cellphone SIM cards to be registered will enhance initiatives to combat cellphone crime, Business Against Crime SA said on Wednesday.

"The registration of pre-paid SIM cards and the reporting of stolen, damaged and/or lost cellphones supports and enhances other initiatives which are in place to combat cellphone crimes," Simi Pillay-van Graan, of Bacsa's national cellphone theft prevention project, said in a statement.

The Regulation of Interception of Communications and Provision of Communication-Related Information Amendment Act (Rica), which took effect on Wednesday, would help law enforcement agencies investigate and combat serious crime.

The legislation compels cellphone service providers to capture the cell number, full names, identity number and address of every person with a SIM card, whether on contract or prepaid packages.

The law also made it compulsory for users to report to police should their cellphones be stolen, lost or damaged, Bacsa said.

Failure to do so may result in criminal prosecution, with jail sentences of up to two years or a fine as punishment.

Bacsa urged prepaid users and contract customers to re-register with their cellphone provider to ensure that updated information was captured on the network provider database.

Altech Autopage, an independent cellular provider, earlier said it fully supported the legislation.

It said its subscriber base already fulfilled most of the Act's requirements and would embark on a campaign to acquire the missing details in the next 18 months.

"... as of today, all Autopage channels, whether connecting a new customer on post-paid or pre-paid SIMs will require positive proof of the customer's identity, this including proof of residential address as found on a utility bill, for example," company group executive Joe Makhafola said in a statement.

He said customer data would be held in the "strictest confidence" and training would be provided to staff to ensure they understood the Act and its application.

Cellphone service providers would, from July 1, be prohibited from activating a new SIM card unless they had captured the customer's cellphone number, full names, identity number and address and verified the information.

Customers would have 18 months from implementation date to register their prepaid and contract SIM cards.

Subscribers who failed to comply within the specified time period would have their SIM cards deactivated.

- Sapa