'i know your every move'
03 March 2008 

A woman who allegedly has been tormented by cellphone calls and SMS's since November has been granted a court order compelling cellular network giant Vodacom to provide her with information about the relevant cellphone number.

Among the SMS messages is one that says: "I know your every move."

Yolandi Storm, a building consultant from Dowerglen, Edenvale, got the order in Pretoria High Court.  The court ordered Vodacom SA (Pty) Ltd. to make copies or extracts of its record documents, data and/or call information since November 13 2007 available to Storm. The cellphone number is mentioned in the court order.

Vodacom also must make details of the owner/s of the cellphone contract or the party/ies by whom the contract was taken out available to Storm.

In an affidavit, Storm said she was being tormented by SMSs from a cellphone with a specific number. The SMSs were being sent "by a person whose identity I cannot determine, unless I have access to the respondent's (Vodacom's) records".

She said that on 13 November 2007 an unknown woman made an anonymous phonecall to her friend, Kim Brooks. The woman said to Brooks: "There is something you should know about Yolandi." Brooks then cut off the caller. Storm said she called the number, but that no one answered.

Shortly afterwards she received an SMS in which she was told that she "could stop phoning". The person said: "You will recognise my voice."

Since then, she has been tormented by up to six SMSs daily "wherein I am either insulted or informed that I'm being watched or that this person is going to ruin my life".

Any reaction by Storm "evokes a hefty counter-reaction, sarcasm and insults".  "Because of being upset and furious, I deleted many of the messages. Since Christmas, the intensity of the messages has diminished slightly, but I still receive sporadic messages on a weekly basis wherein I'm insulted or provoked.  This includes messages such as, I know what you are doing, skattie.The person obviously doesn't intend to stop tormenting my privacy and honour," said Storm.

She established that the number was from a "pay as you go" sim card.  Storm said she was told that Vodacom could determine from which phone the messages came because of the signal sent out by the phone.

The alleged messages were handed in to the court. They include, "I wonder what your parents are going to say about your little life?" and "I know your every move."

Jeanne-Marie Versluis, Beeld, www.news24.com