By the Financial Gazette
21 June 2007
Njabulo Ncube
Harare
BIG brother is watching.
This aptly describes the jittery mood within the media and telecommunications sectors in Zimbabwe following the passing by Parliament last Wednesday of the controversial Interception of Communications Bill, despite opposition to some of its provisions by opposition legislators and free speech advocates.
The passage of the Bill, which allows government to monitor e-mails, telephone calls, the Internet and ordinary mail, has drawn widespread criticism.
Under the Bill, service providers will be compelled to install the enabling equipment on behalf of the government.
The new law empowers the chief of Defence Intelligence, the director-general of the Central Intelligence Organisation, the police commissioner and the commissioner general of the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority to intercept telephonic, e-mail and postal messages.
A monitoring centre or agency, which will be the sole facility through which authorised interception shall be effected, will be established.
Contributing to the debate during the Bill’s reading stages, Bulawayo South Member of Parliament David Coltart said the judiciary, and not the Attorney-General, should be empowered to review the exercise of the powers of the Transport and Communications Minister in the issuing of warrants for the interception of any communication. Coltart stressed that the decision on the right to grant a warrant should be the preserve of the judiciary and not the Executive.
In separate interviews this week, stakeholders in the communications field condemned the new law — which they referred to as the “spying bill” — saying it was the latest demonstration of government’s paranoia and extension of a drive to stifle freedom of expression.
MISA-Zimbabwe national director Rashweat Mukundu, said the passing of the Bill marks yet another sad chapter in the country’s long history of free speech violations, as it will have serious implications on citizens’ fundamental right to freely express themselves without hindrance.
Section 20 of the Constitution guarantees a citizen’s freedom to receive and impart ideas without interference.
“By passing this Bill, especially without any amendments, the House of Assembly has regrettably and sadly dealt yet another devastating blow to the country’s deepening human rights and political crisis, which is being duly recorded by historians and will be judged accordingly by posterity,” said Mukundu.
Internet service providers will be required to bear the burden of additional costs, as they will be expected under the law to install enabling equipment and software, called spyware, despite the acute foreign currency shortages in the country.
Jim Holland, spokesman for Zimbabwe’s Internet Service Providers (ISP), said most ISPs could not afford to install the equipment that would allow government unfettered access to data.
“Potentially, they (government) could insist that anyone operating as an Internet service provider would be forced to monitor it, which is beyond business’s budget,” said Holland.
Wellington Chibebe, secretary general of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), said the Bill deals a major blow to the enjoyment of human rights. “It is an unwarranted invasion of people’s privacy. If signed by the President, this Bill will join other draconian pieces of legislation such as the Public Order and Security Act, and the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act,” said Chibebe.
The ZCTU boss said the need to have such laws was a sign of growing paranoia within President Mugabe’s government.
“The government has taken it upon itself to stifle whatever little freedom Zimbabwean citizens had. The ruling party has perceived and convinced itself that it has enemies bent on toppling it. A government elected by the people, for the people, as ZANU PF claims to have been elected, surely has nothing to fear from its people,” he said.
“It also boggles the mind why government would want to pass the cost of acquiring and installing the spying equipment on to the service providers. This will push some small service providers out of business, as they might have to purchase the equipment outside Zimbabwe’s borders.
“If President Mugabe has any decency left in him, he will not put his signature to this ill-thought and ill-timed Bill. The ZCTU urges President Robert Mugabe instead, to concentrate on finding solutions to the Zimbabwean crisis rather than continue to find ways of harassing and violating innocent people’s rights.”
The government argues that countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States of America have similar laws in place to protect their sovereignty and to fight crime and terrorism.