This comes after Zimbabwe’s Minister of Information and Communication Technology, Postal and Courier Services, Tatenda Mavetera announced that administrators of WhatsApp groups used for business will be required to apply for a licence.

The requirement is part of Statutory Instrument 155 of 2024; Cyber and Data Protection Regulations 2024, which instructs that WhatsApp group administrators  register and secure a licence to operate.

Mare says it is not clear how this is going to be done and there's confusion around what exactly is the import of this particular statutory instrument.  

“How are they going to go about doing it? Do they have the legal means to actually impose these kinds of restrictions on licensed people? We don't know, but these have already pointed out that people are really concerned about this as it speaks to issues around access to information and freedom of expression,” he said.

"This also speaks to the concept that people are being pushed around within the Zimbabwean circles, especially within the ministries themselves. For example, the Minister has been saying that in Zimbabwe, he wants to push what he calls digital sovereignty and when you talk about digital sovereignty, essentially, it's about the need to be able to control the way in which technologies are deployed within our country,” said Mare.

--ChannelAfrica--