Cybercrime and Computer Related Crimes Act, 2018 (Act No. 18 of 2018)
Cybercrime and Computer Related Crimes Act, 2018 (Act No. 18 of 2018)
A citation is an address, not a summary. The first part names the law; what follows narrows it to the exact section, article or paragraph.
In force since 4 July 2018.
A computer misuse rule binding public and private bodies.
As of 4 September 2026.
What it requires
- Do not access, or attempt to access, all or part of a computer or computer system knowing the access is unauthorised, and do not cause a computer system to perform a function as a result of such unauthorised access.
- Do not secure or intend to secure access to a computer system for the purpose of obtaining a computer service, and do not intercept a function of or data within a computer system, without authorisation or beyond the authorisation given.
- Do not damage, delete, alter, or interfere with computer data, or hinder or interfere with the functioning of a computer or computer system, without lawful excuse.
- Do not manufacture, sell, distribute, or possess a device, password, or access code designed or adapted to commit an offence under the Act.
- As a service provider, do not disclose without lawful authority that a preservation, production, or surveillance order has been made against you, or disclose data collected under such an order.
What this law does
Drafted with AI from the cited sources under the direction of UnGovr staff. UnGovr holds editorial responsibility for this page.
Botswana's primary computer-misuse statute, assented to on 29 June 2018, repealing and re-enacting with amendments an earlier Act of the same short title. It came into force on 4 July 2018 by Statutory Instrument 83 of 2018.
The current consolidated Laws of Botswana list a Chapter 08:06 "Cybercrime and Computer Related Crimes" whose section numbering and section headings match this 2018 Act exactly (unauthorised access as section 4, unauthorised interference with data as section 7, and so on), which this Act's own repeal clause explains: it is the current occupant of a chapter number the prior Act held.
It criminalizes unauthorised access to a computer or computer system (section 4, a fine up to P20,000 or imprisonment up to one year, or both) and to a computer service (section 5, up to P40,000 or two years), access with intent to commit a further offence (section 6), unauthorised interference with data or with a computer system (sections 7 and 8), unlawful interception (section 9), possession of hacking devices or data (section 10), unauthorised disclosure of a password or access code (section 11), introducing a computer contaminant (section 12), unauthorised access to critical national infrastructure (section 13), cyber extortion and cyber fraud (sections 14 and 15), cyber harassment and stalking (sections 16 to 18), child pornography and grooming offences (section 19), revenge pornography (section 20), and racist or xenophobic material (sections 21 and 22).
The highest penalty in the Part on offences is a minimum fine of P1,000,000 rising to P5,000,000 for a service provider that unlawfully discloses that a preservation, production, or surveillance order has been made against it, or discloses data collected under such an order (section 23); the Act carries no general liability exemption for a search engine, indexer, or host.
Part III gives police and other authorised officers powers to order data preservation, disclosure, production, search and seizure, and real-time collection of traffic or content data, each generally requiring judicial authorisation.
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Read the law
Cybercrime and Computer Related Crimes Act, 2018, official gazetted text, as captured by the Internet Archive Wayback Machine
the Botswana Communications Regulatory Authority's own copy of this Act has no reachable host