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Equal participation in decision-making builds great nations
Nyasha Nyakunu, MISA-Zimbabwe
Extracted from Monthly Alerts Digest March 2006
April 06, 2006

Many a times I have wished I was a fly on the wall during meetings of our doctorate- endowed Cabinet. I am sure I am not the only Zimbabwean who has at one time or the other wished for the same.

This wish arises from my frustration and failure to comprehend the deliberations and discussions that inform the decisions that emanate from that eminent office much to the chagrin and embarrassment of even those who would have backed such policy decisions upon their being subjected to public scrutiny and criticism.

Only a fly on the wall would be strategically positioned to gaze into and appreciate the thinking of our Cabinet ministers.

That would at least help in solving the riddle of what exactly informs some of the policy formulations and pronouncements as well as come to grips with the national conscience of the prime movers behind such decisions.

Opportunities for nation building and mending of fences to regain the international goodwill that will attract the requisite investment and foreign currency inflows, are easily lost through some of these ill-advised decisions.

Granted, it is the business of security agents to maintain a hawk’s eye on developments that might compromise the country’s sovereignty and economic interests.

But in so doing, is it prudent to come up with a Bill that will enable the government to spy into telephone and e-mail messages in what will obviously be a blatant and outright invasion of privacy and infringement of the right to receive and impart ideas without interference with one’s correspondence.

In proposing the new measures, the government even expects the service providers whose business will be adversely affected by such an eventuality to assist in the successful implementation of the end result by providing the means to the end.

The proposed Bill will make it compulsory for service providers to install the enabling equipment on behalf of the state while empowering state agencies to open mail passing through the post and through licensed courier service providers.

The Bill stipulates that operators of telecommunications services will be compelled to install software and hardware to enable them to intercept and store information as directed by the state.

Is this not expecting the turkey and the goats that are slaughtered ahead of certain festivities to look forward to Christmas? These decisions only serve in the further alienation of the government, business community and foreign investors.

President Robert Mugabe is on record saying there is need to build bridges with the United Kingdom – a development which if pursued vigorously and soberly, will in no doubt help fulminate the right signals to the international community.

The envisaged bridges have to be built on solid foundations in the form of informed domestic and foreign policy formulations that foster respect for basic human rights and freedoms.

An Interception of Communications Act as envisaged under the proposed 2006 Bill, is therefore a contradiction in terms in the context of building bridges with an already sceptical and suspicious international community.

While the nation is still battling to come to terms with the rationale of Communications Bill, Dr Tafataona Mahoso, the chairman of the Media and Information Commission (MIC), enters the fray of confusion.

Mahoso is reported as having said the MIC had submitted to government proposals to amend the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) to regulate the entry of foreign publications into Zimbabwe.

The MIC chairman told the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Transport and Communications that there was need to regulate distributors of foreign published material as some of it was subversive.

He said those distributors who import foreign periodicals should indicate where they are procuring such materials. To continue to trudge on this path of intransigence without drawing lessons from the embarrassing debacle arising from the unlawful seizure and subsequent release of ZimInd publisher Trevor Ncube’s passport, will only lead to a cul de sac.

It is trite to note that the passport was released after the Attorney-General’s Office declined to file an opposing affidavit against an application for its immediate release because the seizure was unlawful.

Under the Constitution Amendment (No 17) Act the government is empowered to seize the passports of citizens suspected of undermining "national interests" during their travels abroad.

Mahoso’s proposed amendments are therefore particularly jarring as they come in the wake of unchallenged reports that the government is reportedly reviewing the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) with a view to removing offending provisions in the Act.

The reviews in question were undoubtedly influenced by a damning report by the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) which expressed concern over the suppression of fundamental rights and liberties through laws such as AIPPA, Public Order and Security Act and the Broadcasting Services Act (BSA).

However, Mahoso appears to be sailing in a different if not conflicting direction to the path reportedly being travelled by his principal, the Minister of Information and Publicity to cleanse the country of the demons of AIPPA.

Unless there is a catch somewhere.

Great nations are, however, built through conscientious efforts towards the creation of public information space that promotes equal and effective participation in decision-making.

Without that Zimbabwe, will continue to be under the international spotlight, albeit for the wrong reasons arising from the formulation of ill-advised policies that do not conform to international norms and dictates expected of functioning democracies.

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