Reduce the cost of Internet
access and facilitate
affordable access for
under-served groups like
women and school children.
Implement sections 74-79 of the
Postal and Telecommunications
Act with respect to the Universal
Access Fund to provide cheaper
Internet access for under-served
groups.
Only 30% of schools in the country have internet
access.8
In February 2020, there was a 25% increase in
mobile data tariffs and a further 48% increase
in May 2020.9 By September 2020, despite
increased reliance on technology as a result of
the COVID-19 pandemic, mobile data charges
further went up by up to 190%.10
Online gender-based violence including
cyberbullying and harassment is on the rise,
further limiting women’s use of the internet.
The bullying and harassment online has mostly
been targeted at prominent female media
personalities11 and politicians.12

Uphold the right to privacy by
implementing and enforcing
the newly enacted data
protection law.
Review section 5 of the new
Data Protection Act to establish
an independent and separate
Data Protection Authority
and not saddle the Postal and
Telecommunications Regulatory
Authority of Zimbabwe
(POTRAZ) with additional data
protection responsibilities.
In 2018, the ruling party sent text messages to
millions of Zimbabwean citizens encouraging
them to vote for now president Emmerson
Mnangagwa. The text messages were
addressed to recipients by their full name,
voter registration number and constituency,
which raised concerns about unrestricted
access
to
the
Zimbabwe
Electoral
Commission’s database of registered
voters. There were accusations that the
mobile network operators shared this data
in disregard of privacy and data protection
standards.13
In December 2020, Zimbabwe was listed
as one of the customers of ‘Circles’, a
surveillance firm that reportedly exploits
weaknesses in the global mobile phone system
to snoop on calls, texts, and the location of
phones around the globe.14
In 2018, Zimbabwe made a commitment to
send vast amounts of biometric and personal
data to CloudWalk Technology, a China-based
entity that was providing the country with
facial recognition technology.15

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