The Zimbabwean government has banned licensing of more internet service providers (ISPs) after officials in President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF party complained that cyberspace could be used to trigger regime change.

The ban is seen as a serious blow to long-suffering Zimbabweans who rely on the internet for accurate news and information amid a barrage of state propaganda churned out by public media which is tightly controlled by Zanu PF.

Independent newspapers and broadcast stations are either banned from operating within the country and subsequently forced to operate and survive from outside the country.

The Posts and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (Potraz) which licences ISPs confirmed the ban.
“The Authority’s considered way forward is to suspend issuance of internet access provider (IAP) licences until further notice,” Potraz said in a statement.

Potraz claimed that allowing more players in this sector would “result in unnecessary duplication of infrastructure and a waste of scarce financial resources”.

Experts immediately dismissed the claim, noting that only 10 percent of Zimbabweans have some form of internet access. They noted that even those with access can not make full use of it due to high costs partially caused by lack of meaningful competition in the sector.

Instead there are claims that the ban is meant to protect the interests of Zanu PF heavies who are jostling for a piece of the action in the fast-growing information technology sector, which is expected to surpass many other industries in terms of profitability.

Potraz said it had recently received an unprecedented number of applications for IAP licences.

The Zimbabwean government has become notorious for shutting off areas that would bring in immediate investment and then complaining that foreign investors are shunning the country.

The trend is evident in the media sector where Mugabe is blocking the establishment of a commission to provide licences to newspapers.

In agriculture, state-sponsored thugs are chasing off farmers and looting property with the active encouragement of Mugabe.

In June defence minister Emmerson Mnangagwa said the army would begin training soldiers to monitor cyberspace as the internet could be used by the country’s ‘enemies’.

By ZIMEYE