COURT RESTORES ACCESS TO INTERNET IN ZIMBABWE

Zimbabwe government finally restores full access to internet and social media services.

After a court order yesterday being Monday, access to internet and social media platforms have finally being restored in Zimbabwe. The Court had deemed the Zimbabwe’s government internet shutdown as being illegal and unlawful.

The Zimbabwe’s High Court ruling stated that the Security Minister Owen Ncube did not have the authority to force mobile operators to block services. The court therefore ordered that telecommunications firms should unconditionally resume the provision of full and unrestricted services to all subscribers.

Last week due to violent protests resulting from the 150% hike in fuel prices, the Government totally restricted access to internet. However, by the weekend access to internet was only partially restored.

A presidential spokesperson said; the clamp on internet use in the country was to dampen the violence. As social media became a tool for coordinating the violent protests.

However even during the shut down, some Zimbabweans had used Virtual Private Networks (or VPNs) to access the internet.

On Monday, few hours after the court order; customers of Econet Wireless, Zimbabwe’s  largest telecommunications company were the first to receive the notification of restoration of all internet and social media services.

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