AMID rising tensions in the country, authorities plan to
fast-track the Cyber Bill which will punish those deemed to have abused social
media or peddled falsehoods against the State and citizens once it becomes law.
In addition, the government will also soon introduce the
Patriotic Act in Parliament — a law which it says seeks to promote patriotism
among Zimbabweans.
Speaking in an
interview with the Daily News yesterday, Justice minister Ziyambi Ziyambi said
the planned two pieces of legislation had become “priority bills” for
authorities.
However, government critics fear that both laws will be
used to clamp down on dissenting voices in the country — particularly in light
of recent accusations that authorities have been guilty of gross human rights
violations.
This comes after President Emmerson Mnangagwa said on
Thursday that Zimbabwe had come under sustained and unjustified online attacks
— in an alleged bid by the State’s enemies to cause regime change in the
country.
Speaking in the exclusive interview with the Daily News
yesterday, Ziyambi, pictured, confirmed that the government would fast-track
the passage in Parliament of the Cyber and Patriotic bills, to deal with those
deemed to be delinquents.
“We have the Cyber Bill, but we have been affected by
Covid-19 (in passing it). There is a need to speed up the passing of this bill
which is one of our priority bills.
“What we are going to do is that when we resume sitting
next week, we will see if we can cover a lot of ground on it.
We are hopeful that we can complete it before the end of
October. “People are now using foreign (cellphone) numbers to attack
the government. The majority of those attacking the government use foreign
numbers,” Ziyambi said.
“They know … that they are perpetuating falsehoods and we
are going to deal with this soon. We just need to speed up our Cyber laws and
we will be able to deal with them after passing the bills,” he said further.
According to Clause
164 of the proposed Cyber Bill, anyone found guilty of communicating false
information on the country or citizens can be jailed for five years.
“Any person who unlawfully and intentionally by means of a
computer or information system makes available, broadcasts or distributes data
to any other person concerning an identified or identifiable person knowing it
to be false with intent to cause psychological or economic harm shall be guilty
of an offence and liable to a fine not exceeding level 10 or to imprisonment
for a period not exceeding five years, or to both such fine and such
imprisonment,” it reads in part.
This comes as the government recently received withering
criticism from rights groups over allegations of having clamped down on critics
ahead of the foiled July 31 mass protests.
However, authorities disputed the allegations saying some
of the gory images that had been circulated in this regard were old pictures
from the era of the late former president Robert Mugabe.
Ziyambi told the
Daily News further yesterday that the circulation of such images and the
peddling of falsehoods justified why the enactment of the mooted two laws was
necessary.
“On the Patriotic Bill, our policy department is preparing
principles of the bill and very soon we will table it in Parliament. There is
also a need to speed up this bill.
“In the next legislative session, that bill will be one of
the agenda. It is one of our priority bills. We embraced too much the so-called
freedom of expression that is nowhere in the world.
“Here, there is too much freedom. In America they have that
Patriotic Act and all those laws,” Ziyambi said.
“We are now looking at our legislation to see how we can
strengthen it, so that we protect innocent citizens from undue attack from
those who are unpatriotic.
“We are looking at how we can deal with this,” Ziyambi
further told the Daily News.
In the United States of America, the Patriot Act — which is
officially known as the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing
Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act — was
developed largely as an anti-terrorism piece of legislation in response to the
September 11, 2001 attacks.
Section 314 of the Act helps law enforcement agencies to
identify, disrupt and prevent terrorist acts and money laundering activities —
by encouraging co-operation among law enforcement agents, regulators and
financial institutions.
Ziyambi said the foiled July 31 mass demonstrations and the
ZimbabweLivesMatter hashtag were all allegedly part of plans to destabilise the
country.
“I think that the #ZimbabweLivesMatter campaign on social
media is now losing steam. What they thought could happen, did not. They were
trying to destabilise the country.
“However, our currency has stabilised, the auction system
is performing well and there are no human rights abuses. There is no crisis
really to talk about.
“They (demonstrators) wanted to cause anarchy, but we are a
very peaceful country. Sooner, their lies will be exposed,” Ziyambi further
told the Daily News.
Meanwhile, Mnangagwa said on Thursday that his
administration and the country were under siege from cyber dissidents and
bullies.
“The social media attack is most unjustifiable, based upon
fiction, non-facts, non-truth allegations that there are gross human rights violations
in the country.
“There is no evidence of such things happening. The
arbitrary arrests, death, torture in the country, all that is being stated
without evidence.
“We are enjoying peace and stability in the country, but
our detractors have decided to impose a cyber-war on our country in pursuit of
a regime change agenda,” Mnangagwa said.
This comes after the government deployed security forces
around the country and thwarted the planned July 31 protests which opposition
and rights groups said were meant to voice dissatisfaction with rampant public
sector corruption.
Rights groups have also since claimed that dozens of
opposition figures and activists were tortured and assaulted in a retributive
exercise by suspected security agents after authorities foiled the
demonstrations.
On its part, the government has refuted the allegations —
claiming instead that the opposition is allegedly working with foreigners to
destabilise the country. Daily News
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