WhatsApp Group Admins Now Need Data Protection License in Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe’s ICT Minister announced today that WhatsApp group admins using their groups for business purposes will be required to obtain a government-issued data protection license. These WhatsApp admins will also need to appoint a government trained and certified Data Protection Officer.

The announcement was made on social media and is part of government’s efforts to implement the Cyber and Data Protection Act, which was gazetted in 2022. The Act had a Statutory Instrument (SI) issued to complement it on 13 September 2024. You can download the SI here. Implementation here means the government is keen to put the law into effect and start enforcing. Businesses have until 13 March to act on the requirements.

The Minister’s announcement followed a “National Stakeholder Meeting for Board Members, CEOs and Management on the Implementation” of the Act and SI held in Harare yesterday.

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The Minister’s post on LinkedIn said in part:

I would like to thank all those who attended the crucial breakfast meeting organised by POTRAZ yesterday.

The time is ticking for organisations that collect first party data, as you are required by law to have a data protection licence and the license fees range from $50 to $2500.

Furthermore, a data protection officer(DPO) who is trained and certified by POTRAZ should be appointed by such a licensee and the appointment should be communicated to POTRAZ.

Even churches who collect personal data ought to have such a licence and appoint a DPO. Whatsapp group admins are not spared too, if your groups are meant for business, you should as well obtain a licence. Failure to comply attracts penalties.

For further enquiries, get in touch with the POTRAZ team.

What does the Cyber & Data Protection Act and SI say

The Act defines anyone who processes people’s data as a “data controller” and states that data controllers have to be licensed. The issued license is valid for 12 months, after which it should be renewed.

The Act also defines a phone number as “personal information.” Since people in a WhatsApp group have access to the phone numbers of other members, the government is categorizing WhatsApp admins as “data controllers.”

As for the Data Protection Officers (DPOs), Potraz announced some weeks ago the graduation of the first batch of DPOs in collaboration with Harare Institute of Technology. We didn’t think much of it then, but clearly it was a step towards this implementation of the Act.

Is this practical?

It’s hard to think how practical it is to require anyone running a WhatsApp group for business to get a license. And paying $50 to Government just to have a WhatsApp group is absurd.

Or is it a case of having a law waiting in case a crime involving data happens say someone complains to Potraz about their phone number being used outside a WhatsApp group’s objectives?

Whatever the case, this is likely to bury people and businesses under the weight of regulatory red tape. It’s also likely to criminalise otherwise everyday behaviour by well-meaning citizens. For a country that claims to be open for business, it’s amazing how we keep throwing spanners in the works.

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22 comments

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  1. MaElder.

    How are they going to implement this?can it be done?how? bcoz WhatsApp belongs to Meta not Zimbabwe’s ICT ministry.

  2. Muzukuru Wa ED

    Atanga makava aya kuda kukohwa pavasina kurima

  3. muzukuru waMetasar

    here they go again fixing the very unnecessary things, i went to the manpower office they dont have a website with their info and what they offer for heaven’s sake but you are busy regulating whatsapp groups… i have a group which is made up of former classmates so we ought to have a DPO for such kkkkk maMinister enyuwo aya

  4. WhoNu

    Zimbabwe keeps on disappointing me😏

  5. Wengai Burwa

    This may be out own Sarajevo moment. This gvt must be booted out.

  6. MK

    Kind of fun you don’t own the app to manage it ,so how do intend to supervise or manage to implement that.
    Basically people will simple use foreign numbers as admins full stop

  7. Inini

    They are talking about businesses like Techzim selling phones in their dedicated whatsapp group. Or a bank that has a what’s so group to update clients and sell them new products or loans.

    Enyu ma group e povo haana basa apa because the admin is not collecting data or selling u anything unless u are.

    Why it is necessary when a crime happens and the relevant company is liable.

    An example Is CAMBRIDGE analytica with Facebook user data and Trump winning. That was not cool.

    Or now Musk allowing u to have ur data collected for not training only if u consent to it.

    Any who EU ndokwairi kuuya ikoko. Zim was just first but for group re bhero no need but if the group re bhero leaks personal info of a group member ma1 anobva atanga.

    Another car is spreading of false info. Especially during election time muno batwa ne mhosva kama Brazil yakaita ban Twitter and later allowed what more about zimbos vanonyepa pa whatsapp. A whatsapp group that might be the first target in March of next year is Ignite Media. Ava pa politics vanohumana.

    1. Always Off Topic

      How does paying a licence fee prevent one from leaking personal info or spreading false info. First , you don’t have to be an admin to leak personal info, similarly anyone can spread false info. They have not solved anything here. NXA !!!!!

      By registering Admins, they are compromising the privacy of citizens. I wonder how this DPO actually enforces the law. It’s likely they will be required to tattletale everything they come across in the group , worse maybe even record everything exchanged in a group. This is a shameless attack on freedom of expression. Is it even constitutional?

  8. Me

    How do we prioritize national issues? So they were all in agreement that this is one of the pressing issues? This government should feature on Cartoon Network

  9. Lili

    I don’t understand the point of this? Is it a money making scheme? I really don’t understand the necessity for a licence apart from gov making money from it, how do the people benefit from this? On a scale of what needs fixing in an economy strived with issues, this to me is really absurd and a violation of rights in my opinion.

  10. Crazy Stuff

    is she the “acting” minister of ICT ? LOL LOL LOL

    1. Unk

      She actually is until someone more competent comes along, competent enough to be minister of ict that is,the drop off is ridiculous from chamisa to an ex studio 263 wanna be actor

  11. A lifeless ordinary

    Anyone else remember signing up for yet another money grabbing, fumbled and fkdup fiasco…?? Will these bizarre ICT ‘lawmakers’ be paying Meta/Zuckerberg any form of commission for using his app to blatantly scam/threaten people? ( oh and if so only in US$ please, not ZiG)

  12. Then What

    Im surprised by this government. How can they demand licenses from users of a social media platforms when the platform itself is not licensed. Who should be licensed first whatsapp user or Meta the owners of whatsapp. They should first license WhatsApp, Facebook, google, Microsoft, YouTube, Instagram, tik tok, Pinterest, telegram, etc etc for they are taking our phone numbers, emails, ect etc they are doing this without license.

    They should also license banks they are collecting our phone numbers, emails, addresses, age, and our next of kins information. Infact every company and every organization should be licensed also.

    The easiest thing they should’ve done is banning all social media platforms in zimbabwe untill they get licensed.

    Zimbabwe is open for licenses:
    Radio license
    TV license
    Cellphone license
    Internet service license
    WhatsApp license
    Facebook license
    Everything license.

    Where are we going as country.

  13. Zobha

    People are gonna make money helping businesses circumvent this ridiculousness which is even unnecessary in the first place

  14. Prince

    Ha’aa! Mbada haina dhiri! 🐅

    Haina dhiri Mbada! 🐆

  15. Sparta ➖ 👑

    The SmartBiz was going to be open for everyone, at the house I mean, unless you had done something to me, but I’m a pretty reasonable guy in time I move on and forget, because t Bhudda said, ‘holding on to a grudge is like holding onto burning coal and expecting the other person to get burned.’

    The plan was to reserve 2Mbps for myself at night and then let everyone else share the rest. The the casual internet user it would be more than enough because not everyone connects at the same time, WhatsApp doable, Facebook doable but not the best experience, Tiktok doable, YouTube you would have to save the videos on your device for a seamless experience, but we would be okay with our modest bandwidth, but yeah.

    ….Vision

  16. Internet Mafia

    The intention of the law is good. This proposed implementation is terrible. There’s no need to licence compliance. Also the pressure to get organisations to pay these licence fees and train DPOs is concerning. It looks as if the government wants to make money off this law. Compliance of a law such as this should be given up to 2 years for all organisations. There’s is a lot of work and budgets that need to be approved beforehand. Rushing compliance to collect fees sounds more like fundraising than anything else. Every other country with similar laws doesn’t force training to one institution that is government affiliated and it doesn’t cost as much either. This stinks and the confusion caused by the minister is somewhat deserved if it will slow down this circus.

  17. Xko

    0784 846

  18. 29@7nov

    70-2005415N45

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