No licensing of private WhatsApp groups – Zimbabwe ICT Minister Mavetera

Tatenda Mavetera PIC: Facebook — Tatenda Mavetera Facebook

Zimbabwe’s ICT Minister Tatenda Mavetera, has said she did not say there would be licensing of WhatsApp Groups and penalties to come with it.

In a statement she said:

False claim of USD 2500 ,penalties for WhatsApp Group Administrators

I would like distance myself from the malicious fake news of intentions by government to licence or penalise WhatsApp Groups or Administrators of any social media platform/s USD 2500.

This claim is not applicable especially to players who do not collect and process Personally Identifiable Information (PII) for commercial or business use.

Personally identifiable information (PII) is any type of data that can be used to identify someone, from their name ,address, to their phone number, passport information and I.d number.

The public is encouraged to disregard this notice with the uttermost discontent it deserves as it is inconsistent with our legal provisions as espoused in

Statutory Instrument (SI) 155 of the 2024 Cyber and Data Protection (Licencing of Data controllers and Appointment of Data Protection Officers) Regulations.

On my LinkedIn post I never expressed any intentions to licence or penalise WhatsApp groups or Administrators of any social media platform/s which do not collect and process (Personally Identifiable Information (PII) for commercial or business use.

I wish to assure the public of government’s commitment through the Ministry of Information Communication Technology Postal and Courier Services to accelerate cyber and data democratisation and security to ensure that No One and No Place is Left Offline.

This is in line with our overarching mandate to the constitution to promote access to information for all in a safe and secure environment.

Just a quick side-note.

Her post o Linked in Said…

Furthermore, a data protection officer(DPO) who is trained and certified by POTRAZ should be appointed by such a licensee and the appointment should be communicated to POTRAZ.

Even churches who collect personal data ought to have such a licence and appoint a DPO. Whatsapp group admins are not spared too, if your groups are meant for business, you should as well obtain a licence.
Failure to comply attracts penalties.