Police threaten to crack down on ‘cyber-bullying’ on Mnangagwa officials

BY RICHARD MUPONDE THE Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) threatened to clamp down on social media users who cyber bully government officials performing their official duties including President Emmerson Mnangagwa who has reportedly faced such treatment on social media.

ZRP said arrest is imminent for suspects who have been issuing threats and harassing government officials.

“The ZRP warns individuals and groups from committing crime through cyber-bullying of Government officials who will be performing their Constitutional and lawful obligations in terms of service delivery to Zimbabweans. The Police are aware that a certain group of suspects who know that their arrest is imminent is fingered and issuing threats and harassing some officials,” ZRP said.

ZRP statement comes a few days after Zanu PF acting spokesperson Patrick Chinamasa warned that colonial masters have turned to social media to “discredit icons like Mnangagwa” who were working for economic emancipation.

Addressing a weekly Zanu PF Press briefing, Chinamasa said while in the past former colonial masters, Britain, beheaded revolutionaries, now they have turned to social media attacks.

He said social media attacks on Mnangagwa and his family were equal to the attacks faced by the likes of Mbuya Nehanda and Sekuru Kaguvi during the early resistance to colonialism.