Leading mobile operator in Zimbabwe, Econet Wireless has
refused to ban What’s app in the country despite pressures from the government,
reports ITRealms.
Econet Chairman, Strive Masiyiwa gave this indication Friday
morning when state security agents went to Econet headquarters in Harare, when he
refused to become a puppet of President Robert Mugabe.
ITRealms gathered
that ZimEye
reported that the government agents wanted Econet to ban WhatsApp platform and secondly,
they need names of people who were complaining about Mugabe's
dictatorship.
The report noted that on arrival, the security operatives
were referred to Masiyiwa by Econet spokesperson Alfred Nyambira, who in turn
spoke to the agents via video call from Denmark.
ZimEye also report that the Econet chairman
was precise in his chat with them and was quoted as saying telling them off.
"... Your Potraz laws cannot be allowed to destroy my
business ..." he said, stressing that concerning the issue of phone numbers
and details of network users.
“I cannot give you because the international satellite laws
state that user privacy is of key importance", said Masiyiwa.
The unshaken Masiyiwa maintained his stand on the issue of
banning WhatsApp.
According him, "My company (Econet Wireless) is going
to lose billions of dollars if I agree to ban the social media platform ... so
go and arrange with your boss (Mugabe) on how to compensate my money before you
talk to me …."
Meanwhile, Econet Wireless has assured Zimbabweans that the
security agents from the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) lack the
capacity to read people’s messages on What’s App, one of the agents was quoted
as saying.
Chuks Egbuna/ZimEye/GEE
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