By Farai D Hove |The state owned Herald newspaper has complained concerning moves by the British government to enact new laws that will outlaw foreign spies.
In a broad editorial, the Herald said the UK is doing this “yet it has its own spies in almost every country.”
The original article was first published on ZimEye last month.
Another of the treason laws will enforce registration for foreign agents and bring in toughened powers under the official secrets Act. They are developed to tackle hostile activity conducted by foreign states.
The revelations were made in Queen Elizabeth’s speech at the end of 2019.
She said, “Measures will be developed to tackle hostile activity conducted by foreign states.”
The amendment is expected to be a major overhaul of its foreign policy that it says is destined to curb hostile activities by foreign agents.
In their article, The Herald complained saying: once passed into law, Zimbabwe will be vindicated for enacting similar laws and policies to protect its sovereignty, despite Britain and her allies attacking her on unfounded grounds for “lack of rule of law”.
Zimbabwe has steadfastly resisted the West’s efforts to manipulate its foreign policy. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told the UK parliament that the proposals were “developed to tackle hostile activity conducted by foreign states”.
But civil liberties groups in UK have raised concerns about the prospect of new treason laws, and questioned how “traitors” would be classified.
Legislation designed to shut legal loopholes, believed to allow hostile powers to operate in the UK, was first unveiled by former premier Theresa May, but was shelved due to Brexit.
In her end of year address on December 19, 2019, Queen Elizabeth said change was needed to make the UK “a harder environment for adversaries to operate in” and to “deal more effectively with the espionage threat”.
The laws would “bring together new and modernised powers, giving our security services the legal authority they need”, said Mr Johnson.
Australia used its version of the same law to target critical journalists and human rights activists and battle soft spying, such as influence operations and financial hacking.
The UK prime minister announced an intention to “re-set” foreign policy in 2020 through an integrated security, defence and foreign policy review.
Said Mr Johnson: “This will be the most radical reassessment of our place in our world since the end of the Cold War, covering all aspects of international policy from defence to diplomacy and development.”
Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi said Zimbabwe needed the legislation to prevent crime and guard national security.
“The same laws that you are saying Boris is implementing are the same that we have here but Britain and other Western countries have been persecuting us for enacting the laws preventing crime and guarding our national security,’’ said Minister Ziyambi.