The admissibility of data messages in the ordinary course of business.

Abstract

One of the objects of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act, Act 25 of 2002 (the ECT Act), is to enable and facilitate electronic communications and transactions for purposes of promoting legal certainty. It is submitted that Section 15 (4) of the ECT Act has in contrast, created more legal uncertainty. Section 15 (4) of the ECT Act, seeks to admit data messages into evidence on its mere production in any legal proceedings and attaches an evidential weight to such data messages, namely that it constitutes rebuttable proof of the facts contained therein. This study focuses on the interpretation of both the admissibility and evidential weight attached to data messages within the specific context of section 15 (4) of the ECT Act. A literature study will be undertaken and it is concluded that section 15 (4) of the ECT Act, as it stands, is a departure from the Model Law on which the ECT Act is based and has neither been effectively applied in our South African courts nor, in certain instances, correctly interpreted. Therefore, the Parliamentary legislator needs to re-consider whether section 15 ( 4) of the ECT Act serves a practical purpose.