Zimbabwe Hits 100% Mobile Penetration, Moves To Control Social Media

New cyber laws are being drafted in Zimbabwe to regulate the activities of the social media following very impressive internet penetration reports.

The Potraz Legal Director, Caecilia Nyamutswa, revealed this while addressing a parliamentary committee on ICT. According to her, the bills will be tabled before the Attorney General before taken to the Cabinet and the Parliament.

“We are part of a study group of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) to understudy the issue of regulations but we are failing to find a common ground. But even if we were to come up with these laws, there is no consensus in the international community under the ITU on how to regulate ICTs,” she said.

She further disclosed the need for a global consensus on such matters so that countries can agree on what sort of activities will constitute prosecutable offenses. “It is an issue that is worrying because we could regulate here as government, but attacks could be made from outside states and what is a prosecutable offense here could not be an offense in another country, so we need to agree globally,” the Legal Director said.

Alfred Marisa, Potraz acting Director‐General, hinted further that mobile penetration had reached the 100 percent; but this does not mean every citizen owns a mobile phone. According to him, the country’s network is at 75 percent while internet coverage is above 40 percent; these figures are above the continental average. “We are really happy with that because it is above the continental average statistic,” he said.

By Emmanuel Iruobe