President laments cyber crime

PRESIDENT Mugabe has lamented cyber crime that is growing rapidly, with the country’s detractors taking to social media and other Internet platforms to peddle falsehoods on the obtaining situation in the country.

Addressing tens of thousands of people during the commemoration of Heroes’ Day at the National Heroes Acre yesterday, President Mugabe said while Internet was good for education and knowledge enhancement, others were using it as a weapon of destruction and immorality.

“Our detractors and opposition parties are using Internet to peddle lies and other countries seeking to have enough knowledge about us,” he said.

“Tozonzwa vachitaura kuti ah, ndozvamuri izvi inga tinonzwa kuti ah, murikuisa vanhu kumadetention, varungu makavadzinga kuma industries ese, zvatisina kuita, asi varikungozvitaura kumusoro uko zvakandwa nevatisingade kumusoro using internet iyoyi zvakaipisisa.”

President Mugabe said even children were now using smart phones to surf irrelevant material.

“They want to know how they should grow,” he said. “Zvitadzo, zvitadzo, sex, homosexuality izvi ndozvatinoti izvizvi zvinodzivirwa sei? Ndopatiri ipapo, zvivi zve technology, cyber crime.”

Zimbabwe is crafting cyber crime law, which seeks to promote accountability on social media.

Social media abuse has been rampant in the country, with President Mugabe at one time criticising senior Zanu-PF officials for discussing the party’s pertinent issues on such platforms.