STELLA MHLANGA, the Kumalo Primary School headmistress who was facing charges of peddling pornographic material has been acquitted.
Mhlanga was in court for contravening Section 26 of the Censorship and Entertainment Control Act Chapter 10:04 (Possession of prohibited articles).
The accusations against her arose after claims that she accidentally shared a revealing picture of her private parts on her WhatsApp status.
In acquitting her, Bulawayo magistrate Marygold Ndlovu ruled that the State failed to establish essential elements of the charges levelled against her.
Ndlovu ruled that the evidence led on behalf of the State did not prove whether the images recovered through a forensic software were the same ones posted on her WhatsApp status.
“In the court’s view, the fact that the images were only recovered through a forensic software makes the accused person’s defence that everything was cleared at the time she received the cellphone reasonably possibly true.
“It is equally possible that these images had been deleted prior and were not visible in the gallery with a naked eye.
This possibly is further strengthened by the second State witness’ findings that this cellphone was not the one used to post pornographic pictures to the accused’s WhatsApp status.
