Posts and Telecommunications Act, 1992

1. Definitions

In this Act, unless the context otherwise indicates -“Commission” means the Namibian Communications Commission established by section 2 of the Namibian Communications Commission Act, 1992 (Act 4 of 1992);[The Namibian Communications Commission Act 4 of 1992 has been replaced by the Communications Act 8 of 2009, and the Namibian Communications Commission has been replaced by the Communications Regulatory Authority of Namibia (CRAN).]“mail” means every article collected for conveyance by post, and includes loose and individual articles and a mail-bag;“mail-bag” includes every bag, box, parcel, basket or hamper and any other envelope or covering in which postal articles in course of transmission by post are conveyed, whether or not it contains such articles;“Minister” means the Minister of Works, Transport and Communication;“money order” means a money order issued by the postal company or by any postal authority of any foreign country for payment under this Act;“postage” means the amount chargeable for the transmission of articles by post;“postage stamp” or “stamp” means any piece of paper or other substance or material having thereon the stamp, mark or impression of any die, plate or other instrument made or used by the postal company or by the postal authority of any foreign country for the purpose of denoting any postage or other postal fee;“postal article” means any letter, post-card, reply post-card, letter-card, newspaper, book, packet, pattern or sample packet or any parcel or other article when in course of transmission by post, and includes a telegram when conveyed by post;“postal company” means Namibia Post Limited established by section 2(1)(a) of the Posts and Telecommunications Companies Establishment Act, 1992;“postal order” means a postal order issued by the postal company or by any postal authority of any foreign country for payment under this Act;“postal service” means the business of receiving, collecting, dispatching, conveying and delivering postal articles and of transmitting and delivering telegrams and of performing all incidental services and such other services as may be prescribed by or under any law;“post office” includes any house, building, room, carriage, place or structure where postal articles are received, sorted, delivered, made up or dispatched or which is used for any other purpose in connection with the rendering or operation of any postal, savings, money transfer or other service by the postal company and any pillar box or other receptacle provided by that company for the reception of postal articles for transmission;“prescribed” means prescribed by or under this Act;“railway” includes any tramway, whether the means of traction be animal or steam power, electricity or other motive force, but does not include the railway lines of Transnamib Limited referred to in section 2 of the National Transport Corporation Act, 1987 (Act 21 of 1987);[The National Transport Corporation Act 21 of 1987 has been replaced by the National Transport Services Holding Company Act 28 of 1998. Section 18 of Act 28 of 1998 provides that references to Act 21 of 1987 shall be construed as references to Act 28 of 1998.]“regulation” means a regulation made under this Act;“Savings Bank” means the Post Office Savings Bank controlled and managed by the postal company;“sender”, in relation to any postal article or telegram, means the person from whom that postal article or telegram purports to have come, unless such person proves that he or she is not the sender thereof;“telecommunications” means any system or method of conveying signs, signals, sounds, communications or other information by means of electricity, magnetism, electro-magnetic waves or an agency of a like nature, whether with or without the aid of tangible conductors, from one point to another,“telecommunications company” means Telecom Namibia Limited established by section 2(1)(b) of the Posts and Telecommunications Establishment Act, 1992;“telecommunications line” includes any apparatus, instrument, pole, mast, wire, pipe, pneumatic or other tube, thing or means which is or may be used for or in connection with the sending, conveying, transmitting or receiving of signs, signals, sounds, communications or other information;“telecommunications service” means the business of undertaking or providing telecommunications;“telegram” means any communication in written form or information in the form of an image transmitted by the postal company over a telecommunications line and delivered in any such form, or intended to be thus transmitted and delivered or delivered from any post office or intended to be thus delivered as a communication or as information transmitted either wholly or partially over a telecommunications line;“this Act” includes any regulations made thereunder.

2. ***

[Chapter II, comprising section 2, deleted by Act 8 of 2009]

32. Forgery, fraudulent alteration of stamps, dies and certain other documents and instruments

Any person who, without due authority or lawful excuse -(a)makes, alters, imitates or imports or assists in making, altering, imitating or importing any postage stamp, date stamp, card, envelope, wrapper, cover or any money order, postal order or Savings Bank warrant or any other warrant or order for the payment of money through the postal company or acknowledgement of deposit or any form or paper similar to that used or made by any postal authority of any foreign country, or uses, issues, offers, exposes for sale, sells, deals in, sends by post or disposes of or has in his or her custody or possession any such stamp, date stamp, card, envelope, wrapper, cover, money order, postal order, Savings Bank warrant or any other warrant or order, acknowledgement of deposit, form or paper, knowing it to have been made or altered or to be an imitation in contravention of this paragraph;(b)engraves or in any manner makes upon any plate or material any stamp or mark or figure or device in imitation of or resembling any stamp or mark or figure or device used or made for the purposes of the functions of the postal company or by any postal authority of any foreign country, or sells, disposes of, purchases, receives, or has in his or her custody or possession any plate or material so engraved or made;(c)makes or assists in making or has in his or her custody or possession any mould, frame or other instrument having thereon any words, letters, figures, marks, lines or devices peculiar to paper provided, used or made for any postage stamp or for any other purposes of the functions of the postal company or by any postal authority of any foreign country;(d)makes or assists in making or has in his or her custody or possession any paper in the substance of which appear any words, letters, figures, marks, lines or devices peculiar to paper provided, used or made for any postage stamp or for any other purposes of the functions of the postal company or by any postal authority of any foreign country, or makes, purchases, sells, disposes of or receives or has in his or her custody or possession any paper provided or made for the purpose of being used for any postage stamps or for any other purposes of the functions of the postal company or by any postal authority of any foreign country before the same has been issued for public use;(e)makes use of any stamp, die, plate or paper engraved or made for the purposes of the functions of the postal company or by any postal authority, of any foreign country or sells, disposes of, purchases, receives or has in his or her custody or possession any such paper or other material bearing an impression or mark of any such stamp, die or plate; or(f)makes on any envelope, wrapper, card, form or paper any mark in imitation of or similar to or purporting to be any official stamp or mark used for the purposes of the functions of the postal company or by any postal authority of any foreign country or any words, letters, device or marks which signify or imply or may reasonably be regarded as signifying or implying that any article bearing such words, letters, device or marks has been in or is entitled to be sent through the post,shall be guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to imprisonment for a period not exceeding seven years, and any stamp, die, plate, instrument or material found in the possession of any person in contravention of this section shall be seized and forfeited.

33. Fraudulent removal of stamps or marks from stamps or other articles

Any person who, with intent to defraud -(a)removes from any article sent by post or from any telegram or document used for the purposes of the functions of the postal company, any stamp which has been affixed thereon, or wilfully removes, or attempts to remove from any stamp which has been previously used, any mark or impression which has been made thereon at any post office, or knowingly utters, puts off or uses any stamp or any part of any stamp which has been so removed or from which any such mark or impression has been removed;(b)erases, cuts, scrapes, defaces, obliterates or otherwise discharges or removes from, or attempts to remove or in any manner adds to or alters any mark or impression upon any postal article, money order, postal order, Savings Bank warrant or other warrant or order or acknowledgement of deposit, paper or other material provided, used or made for the purposes of the functions of the postal company or by any postal authority of any foreign country; or(c)attempts unlawfully to evade payment of any of the rates, fees or charges prescribed by the postal company,shall be guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding R2 000 or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding six months or to both such fine and such imprisonment.

34. Fraudulent, injurious and offensive practises in connection with postal articles and premises

35. Placing of dangerous, filthy, noxious or deleterious matter in any post office, and theft or robbery of mail

36. Tampering with mail or postal articles by employees

Any employee of the postal company or any person licensed under section 2 to conduct any postal service who otherwise than in pursuance of his or her duties opens or tampers with or wilfully destroys, makes away with or secretes or allows to be opened or tampered with, destroyed, made away with or secreted any mail or postal article, and any person who opens or tampers with or wilfully destroys, makes away with or secretes any mail, shall be guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding R28 000 or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding seven years or to both such fine and such imprisonment.

37. Obstructing or delaying conveyance of mail

Any person who wilfully interferes with the conveyance of any mail or through whose act or neglect the conveyance of any mail is interfered with, shall be guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding R400 or, in default of payment, to imprisonment for a period not exceeding one month, for each hour or part of an hour during which the delivery of the mail is delayed in consequence of any such interference.

38. Opening of postal articles or telegrams or delaying delivery thereof

39. Unauthorised use of certain words

Any person who without the authority of the postal company or the telecommunications company or without being authorized thereto by a condition of any licence issued under section 2, as the case may be -(a)displays or allows to be displayed in, on or near any house, premises, wall, door, window, box, post, pillar or other place belonging to him or her or under his or her control the words “post office” or any other word or a mark which may imply or may give reasonable cause for believing that house, premises, wall, door, window, box, post, pillar or other place to be a post office;(b)displays or allows to be displayed on any vehicle or vessel the word “mail” or any other word or mark which may imply or may give reasonable cause for believing that such vehicle or vessel is used for the conveyance of mail; or(c)in connection with any publication or proposed publication, or in any invitation, prospectus, order form, notice, invoice or advertisement relating to any publication, uses the words “telephone directory”, “yellow page directory”, “yellow pages”, “telex directory”, “fax directory” or any other word or a mark, in circumstances or in a manner which may imply or may give reasonable cause for believing that such a publication or proposed publication is a telephone directory, yellow page directory, telex directory, fax directory or other publication published on the authority of the telecommunications company,shall be guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding R2 000 or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding six months or to both such fine and such imprisonment.

40. Fraudulent issue of documents or presentation or sending of communications

Any person who with fraudulent intent -(a)issues, re-issues, utters or presents to any other person or at any post office any money order, postal order, Savings Bank warrant or other warrant, order or other instrument for the transfer, payment or deposit of money through or with the postal company;(b)transmits through the post or otherwise any letter, telegram or other communication or message concerning any money order, postal order, Savings Bank warrant or other warrant, order or other instrument for the transfer, payment or deposit of money through or with the postal company;(c)forges or, knowing it to be forged, utters any delivery slip or other instrument issued by the postal company as proof of the receipt of a postal article,shall be guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding R28 000 or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding seven years or to both such fine and such imprisonment.

41. Impersonating employees of postal company or telecommunications company

Any person who with fraudulent intent impersonates or represents himself or herself to be an employee of the postal company or the telecommunications company or any person licensed under section 2 to conduct any postal service or telecommunications service, shall be guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding R4 000 or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding 12 months or to both such fine and such imprisonment.

42. False declarations

Any person who in any declaration prescribed by or under this Act makes a false statement knowing the same to be false, shall be guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding R4 000.

43. Theft, destruction, forging or alteration of telegrams

Any person who -(a)with fraudulent intent takes from the possession of any employee of the postal company or other person having the custody thereof for the postal company or from any post office, or steals, secretes or destroys any telegram or any part thereof or fraudulently receives any such telegram or any part thereof;(b)forges a telegram or utters a telegram knowing the same to be forged or false or transmits by telegraph as a telegram any message or communication purporting to be a telegram which he or she knows to be forged or false; or(c)knowingly sends, delivers or causes to be sent or delivered to any employee of the postal company for the purpose of being transmitted as a telegram any message or communication which has been wilfully and without due authority altered or which purports to be signed or sent by any other person without that person’s consent, or who wrongfully signs any telegram with the name of another person without that person’s consent or with the name of some fictitious person, or who wilfully and without the consent of the sender alters any telegram or writes, issues or delivers any message or communication which purports to be a telegram received through a telegraph office but which was not so received,shall be guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding R4 000 or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding twelve months or to both such fine and such imprisonment.

44. Divulging contents of telegrams or telephonic communications

Any employee of the postal company or telecommunications company who, not being a witness in a court of law without the consent of the sender or addressee or receiver, or otherwise than in pursuance of or her duties -(a)opens or tampers with or divulges the contents or substance of any telegram, or discloses its existence otherwise than by delivering it or giving a copy thereof to the person to whom he or she is authorized to deliver it or to give such copy, or who maliciously or wilfully misdelivers, mistimes, secretes, intercepts, destroys, makes away with, alters or omits to transmit or deliver or prevents or delays the delivery or transmission of any telegram or makes use for his or her own purposes of any knowledge he or she may acquire of the contents thereof;(b)divulges the existence, contents or substance of any telephonic communication or maliciously or wilfully intercepts a telephonic communication or prevents or delays the transmission thereof or makes use for his or her own purposes of any knowledge he or she may acquire of the contents thereof,shall be guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding R4 000 or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding twelve months or to both such fine and such imprisonment.

45. ***

[section 45 deleted by Act 8 of 2009]

46. Attempt to commit or procuring commission of offences

Any person who attempts to commit any offence under this Act or solicits or authorises or endeavours to employ, cause, procure, aid, abet, incite or counsel any other person to do anything the doing whereof is an offence under this Act shall be guilty of an offence and liable to the same punishment as if he or she had actually committed the offence.

47. Certain allegations in charge sufficient

In any charge against a person prosecuted for any offence committed in respect of the postal company or the telecommunications company or any person licensed under section 2 to conduct any postal service or telecommunications service, or of any mail, telegram or telecommunications line or any property, moneys, money order, postal order or other instrument authorized to be used for the purpose of remitting, paying or depositing money through or with the postal company or with respect to any act, deed, matter or thing which has been done or committed with any malicious, injurious or fraudulent intent relating to or concerning the postal company or the telecommunications company, as the case may be, or any such mail, telegram, telecommunications line, property, moneys, money order, postal order or other instrument, it shall be sufficient -(a)to allege that any such mail, telegram, property, moneys, money order, postal order or other instrument belongs to or is in the lawful possession of the postal company or the telecommunications company or the person so licensed, as the case may be, and to produce the same in evidence, and it shall not be necessary to allege or prove the same to be of any value;(b)to allege that any such act, deed, matter or thing was done or committed with intent to injure or defraud the postal company or the telecommunications company, as the case may be, without setting forth its name or any other name, addition or description whatsoever; and(c)if the offender is an employee of the postal company or telecommunications company, to allege that the offender was such an employee at the time of the commission of the offence without stating the nature or particulars of his or her employment.

48. Evidence

In any proceedings for the recovery of any sum payable under this Act in respect of a postal article -(a)the official stamp or mark thereupon denoting the sum due shall be sufficient proof that the amount so denoted is the amount payable in respect thereof;(b)the production of any such postal article having thereon a post office stamp or mark denoting that the article has been refused or that the person to whom the same is addressed is dead or could not be found, shall be prima facie evidence of the fact so denoted.

49. Non-liability of postal company and telecommunications company

50. Compensation may be paid in certain cases

51. Detention of postal articles and telegrams suspected of relating to an offence

Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in any law contained, any postal article or telegram which is reasonably suspected of containing anything that may afford evidence of the commission of an offence or of being sent in order to further the commission of an offence or to prevent the detection of an offence, shall be detained by the person in charge of the post office in which it is or through which it passes, and the postal company may bring the detention of any such postal article or telegram to the notice of the prosecutor-general or, at the request of the prosecutor-general, cause any such postal article or telegram to be handed over to any public prosecutor.

52. Regulations

53. Employees to take oath or make affirmation

Every employee of the postal company and every employee of the telecommunications company, if required by such company to do so, shall take an oath or make an affirmation before a justice of the peace in the form set forth in the Schedule before exercising the duties of his or her office.

54. Transitional provisions

Notwithstanding the repeal of the Post Office Act, 1958 by section 10 of the Posts and Telecommunications Establishment Act, 1992, any regulation made or anything done under any provision of the Post Office Act, 1958 or any contract concluded in connection with the postal enterprise or the telecommunications enterprise, as defined in section 1 of the Posts and Telecommunications Establishment Act, 1992, shall, in so far as it is not inconsistent with the provisions of this Act, be deemed to have been made by the postal company or the telecommunications company, as the case may be, under the corresponding provision of this Act.

55. Short title and commencement

This Act shall be called the Posts and Telecommunications Act, 1992 and shall be deemed to have come into operation on 1 August 1992 except Section 2 which shall come into operation on a date determined by the Minister by notice in the Gazette.