FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION UNDER THREAT|It is with grave concern that ZINASU has come to learn that the government of Zimbabwe is mulling ill advised plans to regulate social media under the pretext of protecting citizens’ rights.
Barely a week after President Mugabe spoke about the issue on his return from a visit to Japan, the state controlled Sunday Mail has reported that the Zanu-PF led government is drawing up legal and policy instruments to govern information communication technologies in general and social media in particular.
It is telling that the state media has given China, one of the world’s least democratic countries, as an example of nations that have the type of social media regulation Zimbabwe seeks to pursue. Other African countries like Nigeria are in the process of trying to introduce legislation to regulate social media under very stiff resistance from civic society and the general populace while most developed countries that rank high on the democracy index have no laws that regulate social media.
In a nation like ours where the government fears free discussion, social media regulation will most certainly lead to curtailing of the freedom of expression which is guaranteed by Chapter 3, part 2 (61) of our constitution.
The current government of Zimbabwe which lacks public trust as a result of its egregious track record of introducing draconian legislation cannot and should not, under any circumstances, be allowed to draw up laws that further limit citizens’ rights.
The Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) and Public Order and Security Act (POSA) are perfect examples of draconian pieces of legislation that the government introduced under the pretext of protecting citizens’ rights and national security yet these laws infringe on freedoms of citizens.
The fact of the matter is all past actions of ZANU PF – a party that is well versed in Hobbesian and Machiavellian politics – show that it has zero interest in protecting citizens’ rights but is always on a mission to curtail them in a bid to limit political dissent and promote a culture of fear and docility among the citizenry.
Clearly, ZANU-PF seeks to misuse the free reign it is enjoying in Parliament courtesy of the paucity of opposition legislators to consolidate its grip on power by introducing pieces of legislation that protect the authoritarian state that it has created in Zimbabwe.
Civic society and the general populace cannot remain silent while ZANU-PF carries out its machinations unmolested; doing so would be akin to letting the devil run away with the gospel while the preacher and the congregation watch in amusement.
When Parliament conducts public hearings for the proposed legislation to regulate social media, the general populace, the student movement and civic society should take those hearings as an opportunity to vehemently reject any law that limits their freedom of expression and jealously guard all the rights afforded to them by the nation’s supreme law.

For and on behalf of ZINASU,

Zivai Mhetu

ZINASU National Spokesperson