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Don't sign snoop bill - unions
18/06/2007 23:51 - (SA)
Harare - Zimbabwe's main labour body urged President Robert Mugabe on Monday not to sign into law a controversial bill to bug telephones and monitor e-mails.
Last week Zimbabwe's upper and lower houses of parliament, both heavily dominated by Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF party, passed the Interception of Communications Bill, to the anger of local rights groups.
The bill allows authorities to spy on letters, phones and e-mails.
The state-controlled Herald newspaper, which closely reflects government thinking, on Monday said the law had been crafted to "net rogue elements (who) were deliberately communicating lies".
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and other critics fear it will be used to clamp down on Mugabe's opponents and independent journalists ahead of next years crucial presidential and parliamentary polls.
Wellington Chibebe, the secretary-general of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), said the bill reflected growing paranoia within Mugabe's government.
'Ill-thought', 'ill-timed' bill
"The government has taken it upon itself to stifle whatever little freedom the Zimbabwean citizens have," he said in a statement.
"If President Mugabe has any decency left in him he will not put his signature to this ill-thought and ill-timed bill."
The 83-year-old president has to personally sign all bills before they become law. In 2005 he did not sign into law a bill that would have outlawed many rights groups. He never explained why.
There is growing restlessness within once-prosperous Zimbabwe, where an unprecedented economic crisis has pushed millions of Zimbabweans into poverty.
Chibebe said that the fact that the Interception of Communications Bill forced internet service providers to buy the software needed to spy on customers communications meant that some small internet service providers would be knocked out of business.
- Sapa-dpa
- SAPA
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