Stir The Pot Hacking, stereotyping and oligopoly
ZIMBABWE is going south quickly. Less than four years after the November 2017 coup, the country has normalised phone hacking, tribal stereotyping and creation of oligopolies.
Phone hacking has become acceptable and has been used for political gain without any shred of shame. The initial splashing of private conversation was that of Colonel Samson Murombo’s chiding by First Lady Auxillia Mnangagwa.
Many people listened to the First Lady’s sordid tirade against a commissioned army officer. Not only was Murombo a commissioned officer, but he actually was in charge of the First Family’s security. This was unprecedented. No formal inquiry was held to determine how such private conversations ended in the public via online media.
The State’s inaction encouraged the habit. No one thought the next high calibre person would be a whole Vice-President Kembo Mohadi discussing in crude terms with female married subordinates on having it at his offices. The audios went viral, forcing Mohadi to resign from office.
The behaviour has been normalised over the years by tabloids. Each passing day, people are fed with sleazy private WhatsApp conversations, nude pictures and intrusion into personal lives from the same tabloids without any repercussion.
I have argued before in this column for the urgent need to have data protection laws. Personal data should be protected, its publication regulated and breaches dealt with by law. It, however, remains unfortunate that the Executive and Parliament see not urgency in having a data protection law.
Over the years since independence, the late former President Robert
Mugabe had normalised the art of tribal and racial stereotyping. The white community had fear instilled in their hearts, the Kalanga were said to enjoy trekking down South to do menial jobs and Malawians were called “totemless people”.
MDC Alliance vice-president and Harare East MP Tendai Biti this week torched a tribal storm on Twitter. Biti, during a heated and robust legal debate about the interpretation of section 96(2) of the Constitution, from the blue attacked constitutional law expert Lovemore Madhuku using uncouth tribal stereotype about Ndau people. In the wake of Twitter backlash, Biti issued an apology.
“In conclusion and for the avoidance of doubt I regret my tweet with Lovemore and am sorry for its pub stereotype banter. I have known Madhuku for years and we have shared a life together in three different spheres. It was mistake to share things that are privately said in jest.
Zikomo,” tweeted Biti.
Like always, Biti’s stereotyping was defended by some because Zanu PF officials do it too. Some took the opportunity to score a few political brownie points. Very few considered the damage the tweet had done to the whole Ndau community.
Tribal stereotyping or racism are crimes in international treaties. Politicians, as role models and influencers, should be exemplary.
In the business sector, there is a new phenomenon of big business consolidating through aggressive acquisitions and mergers.
Billionaire telecoms investor Strive Masiyiwa through EcoCash now controls more than 70% of the telecommunications industry. He controls mobile money transfers, voice calls and data market.
Presidential adviser and business mogul Kudakwashe Tagwirei has aggressively expanded his investments across all sectors of the economy in the last four years.
Tagwirei is into energy, mining, transport, finance and banking and health services.
These are not the only people who are making waves, from Kwekwe there is the Cotzee family that owns Dendairy, a dairy production company. The company has been gaining a significant share of the dairy market.
It is now poised for aggressive growth after the government granted it access to land in Chilonga, Chiredzi, for lucerne production.
Lucerne production and the expansive land given to Dendairy puts it on a growth trajectory and possibly getting bigger than Dairibord Zimbabwe. Before that even happens, the Dendairy course has changed and so with it potentially the Zimbabwe dairy sector for good.
On Thursday, online business publication newZWire reported that “Dairiboard and Dendairy have notified the competition regulator of merger talks, but are yet to submit an agreement on a deal that would integrate the country’s two largest dairy companies”.
The creation of these monopolies and oligopolies is bad for citizens. Very soon we will be limited in choices and at the mercy of these vulture capitalists.
Take for instance, Masiyiwa, one will make calls or Zoom meeting using his network, process online payments using his network, use his Vaya taxi to get to work, use his EcoCash to do mobile transfers, use his network for health services, buy bulk water, insured by EcoSure and Moovah and study using e-library.
Or in the case of Tagwirei, use his bank CBZ, buy fuel from Sakunda or board his Zupco buses in urban areas or work at his mines or eat his Command Agriculture-financed produce.
Then you have Axia and Simbisa owned by the Greeks. You can’t do anything in Zimbabwe without doing business with them.
Be it food Irvines and Colcom, retail fast-food chains and Spar, automotive spare parts through Transerv and Midas Touch and distribution of cosmetics and soaps.
It has become clear that the Zimbabwean political establishment is being created and nearly ensconced. An establishment comprising big business, military and political elites and not afraid to use phone hacking and tribal stereotyping to get ahead or what it wants.
Demanding for data protection laws, criminalising tribal stereotyping and stopping mergers that create monopolies and oligopolies may halt the wave temporarily, but Zimbabweans now more than ever need to engage in an ideological debate and what path they want the country to take or we will remain passengers in our own country, without a say.