Chronicle (Zimbabwe): Citizens urged to archive information. “ARCHIVISTS have challenged the nation to participate in archiving information as records act as a nation’s memory, culture and collective identity to influence national development.”
263 Chat: Zimbabwe International Film Festival Returns. “‘Narratives from Zimbabwe’ is a project initiated by ZIFFT in 2019, that has so far travelled around many parts of the country, documenting Zimbabwe’s rich history and heritage. The interviews, footage and photographs captured during this first phase of the project will be used to create a multi-media digital archive and interactive website that filmmakers and other creative content producers will be able to draw from as a reservoir of indigenous knowledge and inspiration.”
BBC: Coronavirus in Zimbabwe: Nick Mangwana apologises for ‘medical assassins’ slur. “A spokesman for Zimbabwe’s government who called doctors in the country ‘medical assassins’ has apologised. In comments posted to Twitter, Nick Mangwana had suggested that four cabinet ministers who died in recent months of coronavirus had in fact been ‘eliminated’.”
BBC: Sibusiso Moyo: Zimbabwe foreign minister dies from Covid-19. “Zimbabwe’s Foreign Minister Sibusiso Moyo has died after succumbing to Covid-19, the government says. Born in 1960, the former army general gained international prominence in 2017, when he announced the military takeover that ousted long-serving President Robert Mugabe from power.”
Wee Tracker: Zimbabwe’s Speedy Social Media Law Is Africa’s Latest Internet Censorship Plot. “A cyber bill that seeks to punish peddlers of falsehood on social media could become law as soon as October this year in Zimbabwe. That’s because Zimbabwe is fast-tracking the adoption of a divisive new law which critics believe is more about muffling dissent than curbing falsehood. As part of the provisions in this new piece of legislation, individuals found guilty of spreading false information via social media face a jail term of up to five years, or a fine, or both.”
BBC: Banned protesters send #ZimbabweanLivesMatter viral. “Could a social media hashtag – tapping into the energy and anger of the global #BlackLivesMatter phenomenon – help achieve in Zimbabwe what years of street protests, strikes and political campaigns have so clearly failed to do? Over the last few days, in response to a particularly brutal, public, widespread, and on-going clampdown by security forces, the hashtag #ZimbabweanLivesMatter has gone viral, globally.”
BBC: Coronavirus: Zimbabwe arrests 100,000 for ‘violations’ of measures. “More than 105,000 people have been arrested in Zimbabwe since March for violating regulations aimed at curbing the spread of coronavirus, police say. Around 1,000 were arrested in the last two days for ‘unnecessary movement’ or for not wearing face masks, they add.”
BBC: Coronavirus: Zimbabwe health minister in court on corruption charges. “Zimbabwe’s health minister is appearing in court in Harare charged with corruption over the procurement of coronavirus tests and equipment. Obadiah Moyo was arrested on Friday after the government came under pressure from the opposition and on social media.”
African Arguments: “It’s lucrative”: Zimbabwe’s farmers turn to social media to stop the rot. “Since Zimbabwe started lockdown measures on 30 March, farmers have been struggling to sell their produce. With restaurants closed and people staying away from markets, tonnes of tomatoes, avocados and other fruit and veg have been rotting in piles across the country. Since COVID-19, many farmers have recorded losses of thousands of dollars. Some, however, have adopted new strategies to sell their produce. In the past few weeks, marketing posters have increasingly been popping up across social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and WhatsApp advertising direct home deliveries.”
Quartz: Zimbabwe is clamping down on social media use with a cyber crime bill set to become law. “Zimbabwe has inched closer to clamping down on citizens’ use of social media platforms and will likely fish out and penalize citizens who create and share what is deemed offensive or pornographic material over outlets including WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter.”
iAfrikan: Meet the ‘varakashi’ – Zimbabwe’s online army. “The avatar might be a cockerel, a razor or, most likely, a beautiful Eastern European or Latino woman. Behind the avatar, there might be a human, a bot or some combination of the two. With Zimbabwe’s ‘varakashi’ it is hard to be sure of much. Their job, at least, is clear cut: disrupt online debates and stymie criticism of President Emerson Mnangagwa and his government.”
The Zimbabwe Mail: Zimbabwe gov goes after black market blog websites and social media platforms. “The embattled micro-blog platform Market Watch Zimbabwe, rub by street black market money changing operatives who call themselves independent analysts focused on research into the Zimbabwean parallel markets as well as the stock market has suspended services after the government allegedly threatened them. It is understood that the there are multiple websites and social media platforms run by big street money changers and Market Watch and ZimBollar research institute are said to be on Zimbabwe government radar for causing mayhem to the currency market.”
New Delhi Times: Zimbabwe Activists Push Back on Social Media Restrictions. “In Zimbabwe, rights and opposition groups are surviving by using social media to communicate with the masses as state-owned media remain reserved for ruling party officials. During recent anti-government protests, the public received information through social media and now the government wants a law to block such platforms.”
CNN: Social media access restored in Zimbabwe by court order. “Access to social media platforms in Zimbabwe was reinstated on Monday, hours after a court deemed the government’s internet shutdown illegal. Zimbabwean authorities clamped down on internet use last week, after violent protests broke out over President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s announcement of a 150% hike on fuel prices.”
BBC: Zimbabwe cuts internet indefinitely amid violent crackdown. “Zimbabwe has shut down the internet indefinitely amid an intensifying crackdown on protests against a hike in fuel prices. The country’s largest mobile operator – Econet – says it has been ordered to cut services until further notice.”
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