The Zimbabwe government under the guidance of Acting President General Constantino Dominic Chiwenga has again instructed Internet Service Providers to shut down the internet services till further notice.
The shut down was confirmed by Media Institute of Southern Africa(MISA)
“Around midnight , Zimbabwe plunged back into a total #InternetShutdown. Econet sent the message below stating the current blackout is happening despite a pending court action: The High Court is yet to set a date for the hearing.”MISA said in a statement.
While state controlled service providers simply switched off without any warning to customers, the country’s largest internet service provider Econet Wireless Zimbabwe informed it’s users of the development:
Said Econet Wireless; “we were served with another directive for total shutdown of the internet until further notice.
Our lawyers advised that we are required to comply with the directive pending the Courts decision on its legality.
“The earlier directives are already the subject of a pending High Court Application. We sincerely apologise for all inconvenience caused by the acts of government which are beyond our reasonable control.”
The High Court challenge was filed by advocacy attorneys, the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) and the local branch of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) after the first two-day blockade on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Apparently responding after, local and international outrage, the Chiwenga let regime partially lifted the first blockade late Wednesday but blocked popular social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and the popular text messaging platform WhatsApp.
While state controlled media has been blaming the opposition for the recent unrest, signed police affidavit reports and information from citizens now show that terror gangs and senior officials within the ruling Zanu PF organised and spearheaded violence, looting and burning of property in Harare, Bulawayo and Kadoma.
Harare based Zanu PF youth leaders and ordinary card-carrying members have since been arrested and some of them freed after senior figures in government blocked and interfered with police investigation.
