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Despair over new cellular foreign currency payment system
MISA-Zimbabwe
January 05, 2009

http://www.misazim.co.zw/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=410&Itemid=1

Several subscribers with Econet Wireless were inconvenienced during the past few days and continue to be frustrated as they fail to phone nor replenish their accounts after the service provider switched its payment system from Zimdollars to a new foreign currency payment system.

The new payment system has seen cellular service providers that include NetOne and Telecel charging in United States dollars after being granted foreign currency licenses by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe. It is feared that the new system will adversely affect the communication needs of the majority of Zimbabweans who are already struggling to make ends meet in a hyperinflationary environment which has spawned untold economic hardships on the populace.

Econet Wireless corporate communications manager Rangarirai Mberi attributed the disruption in services to major network upgrading which has disrupted the entire network system. MISA Zimbabwe notes with great concern that this latest development comes in the wake of the appalling state of fixed and mobile telephone networks in Zimbabwe which has seen subscribers failing to communicate as and when they desire despite the high tariff charges.

MISA-Zimbabwe shares the concerns of subscribers who say they will not be able to afford the new payment mode as the little foreign currency they can lay their hands on is reserved for basic commodities which are now being sold in foreign currency by most retail outlets. While supermarkets and other service providers are now charging in foreign currency, the majority of workers are still being paid in the ever increasingly valueless Zimbabwean dollar.

Equally worrying is that this development comes on the backdrop of Econet's November 6, 2008 statement announcing the withdrawal of its contract line services for clients under the Business Partna scheme as of 10 November 2008, a move which has left thousands of Zimbabweans deprived of their right to communicate.

MISA Zimbabwe reiterates its earlier concern that this state of affairs in the telecommunications industry is a serious impediment on the right of the people of Zimbabwe to communicate; as well as their right to freedom of expression as guaranteed in Article 9 of the African Charter on Human and People's Rights. This right includes the ability and access to usage of tools of communication such as the internet, fixed telephones and mobile telephone networks by ordinary people, as emphasized by the World Summit on Information Societies (WSIS) held in Tunis, Tunisia 2005.

In light of these universally accepted principles, MISA Zimbabwe urges the fixed and mobile telephone service providers as well as the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ) to act with the full understanding that communication is a human right and not a privilege and that telecommunications remain key pillars of freedom of expression and access to information.

We therefore appeal to the service providers to seriously reconsider the impact of their decisions in view of the fundamental right of citizens to exercise their right to freedom of expression and access to information.

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