I was a fool to think that, our government was regretting its decision to shut down the internet a couple of weeks ago, apparently not. In fact, it will shut it down again in future when protests happen again according to Presidential Spokesperson, George Charamba. In an interview he said:
As a matter of fact, it’s a standard practice that whenever you have very serious civil disturbances in any country or an attack of a terrorist nature – we saw it recently in the UK – those services are suspended. Only for the duration of the disturbances. In our case, it was even more compelling because we then discovered that the internet was being used to coordinate those demonstrations unnecessarily. If it was a weapon of choice by the demonstrators, we had to make sure that that weapon of choice was denied them…….The internet is always live all the time and so it becomes a tool for coordinating for those trying to cause chaos and mayhem in society. So yes, it will be suspended. It was suspended and it will be suspended in the future.
These guys are either stubborn or they just don’t understand the implications of shutting down the internet. Protests happen every day in the Middle East but they don’t switch off the internet because they know they are probably killing the goose that lays the golden eggs. Who will want to come to invest in Zimbabwe if they have a business that overly depends on the internet? Actually, many businesses depend on the internet these days. And what stops investors from just going to Mozambique where the government doesn’t switch off the internet?
One response
I have a question, where is the proof that demonstrators were using the internet to co-ordinate demonstrations? This is a govt that constantly operates on hearsay and random assumptions, then lies to its people and freely violates international and constitutional rights of its people. So the Zimbabwe government is going to break the law again?? That’s great, that’s just great. Definitely No Rule of Law in Zimbabwe!