Econet says Mandiwanzira is telling porkies

Econet, Zimbabwe’s largest mobile services provider has come out swinging, pretty much accusing the government of conspiring against it.

It says the minister of ICT, Postal and Courier Services Supa Mandiwanzira was not the reason they had reversed their charges but rather that they had actually written to the Post and Telecommunication Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe saying they would do so if the other mobile network operators, both state owned, didn’t up theirs too.

We wrote and delivered a letter to Potraz on 12 January 2017 in which we indicated that we would revert to our old tariffs if the regulator did not ensure other operators had complied with its Regulatory Notice by end of day 12 January 2o17. To anticipate our reversal of the data tariff in creases, the minister who is supposed to be on leave published a notice in the press in which he claimed to have reversed the tariff increases. This is false and misleading. Up and until the roll back no such reversal had been communicated with us.

And then they go in, accusing Mandiwanzira of duplicity saying he ‘intended to discredit [Econet] in the eyes of [its] customers’