A 22-year-old Kwazulu Natal man has been arrested in connection with an investigation into a global child porn network.
He was arrested on Tuesday morning in Pennington on the KZN south coast.
According to the organisation Women and Men Against Child Abuse, police seized a laptop computer with thousands of images and videos depicting child abuse.
WMACA spokesperson, Germaine Vogel, says the latest arrest was a result of the ongoing investigation into child porn rings in South Africa and abroad and was started as a result of a probe by Belgian police.
"What we have seen is how this team is committed. The amount of work they have to do and the time that it has taken to investigate the suspects and the way they are going about it, we just feel that this is a positive move when it comes to child abuse material. We feel that this is the first step. In future we are hoping to see reform in our legislation"
Vogel says the young unemployed suspect faces charged related to the possession and distribution of child abuse images of children aged up to five years.
She says the suspect's user profile was taken over by Chief Inspector Tim Van Eester of the Belgian police following the arrest earlier this year of a Plettenberg Bay man on similar charges.
The man in Plettenberg Bay was the first to be arrested and thereafter a couple in Westering, Port Elizabeth. Suspects were also arrested in Midrand, Fish hoek and Pretoria.
Meanwhile, Lieutenant-Colonel Heila Niemand of the Gauteng Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit, says the suspect appeared in court.
She says the young man has a terminal illness and was released on bail of R1000.
Niemand says he lives with his grandmother.
The case against him was postponed to the 10th of November.
The global investigation is know as Cloud 9.
