Costs
[88]
None of the Applicants made any submissions regarding costs, nor are any reasons
apparent why an order for costs should be made. I will therefore issue no order in that regard.
Order
[89]
In the result, the following order is made:
Section 2(1) of the Indecent or Obscene Photographic Matter Act 37 of 1967 is
declared to be inconsistent with the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa,
Act 200 of 1993 (as amended), and is, with effect from the date of this judgment,
declared to be invalid, and of no force and effect.
[90]
DIDCOTT J: These cases concern the possession of material that is hit by the Indecent
or Obscene Photographic Matter Act (No 37 of 1967). I underline the word “possession”, then
underline it again. Neither case has anything to do with the production of such material, with its
importation, publication, exhibition, distribution or dissemination. A single question has been
referred to us for our ruling on it, the question whether section 2(1) of the statute is constitutionally
valid or not. That issue and it alone had arisen down below, where a contravention of section 2(1)
was the sole offence which the applicants for the referral were alleged to have committed. And
what section 2(1) forbids, all that section 2(1) forbids, is the possession of material which it calls
“indecent or obscene photographic matter”. Indeed the entire statute, a singularly short one
consisting of a mere six sections, deals in its penal provisions with nothing else. Separate
legislation which is not challenged now, and cannot be within the limited terms of the referral,
combats the other activities in the area of pornography, obscenity and indecency that I mentioned
a moment ago.
[91]
What erotic material I may choose to keep within the privacy of my home, and only for my
personal use there, is nobody’s business but mine. It is certainly not the business of society or the
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