Resisting Political Corruption:
Econet Wireless Zimbabwe
8 - 2 March 2014 - The Observer
T
Abstract
his case study documents the story
of Zimbabwean entrepreneur Strive
Masiyiwa in his quest to obtain a
mobile telecommunications license.
First the Post and Telecommunications Corporation
of Zimbabwe (PTC) and then the Ministry of
Information, Post and Telecommunications of the
government of President Robert Mugabe place
obstacle after obstacle in his path, but Masiyiwa
challenges their decisions and actions in the
High Court and the Supreme Court. Throughout
this five year process (1993-1998), he remains
determined to obtain the license through ethical
means. A number of individuals and organizations
impressed by his values and come to his help and
this assistance, along with the independence of the
Judiciary, is instrumental in his firm being given
the license in July 1998. The case represents an indepth study of a successful example of resistance
to political corruption.
(Continued from last edition ..)
6 The constitutional
challenge
A few days after the adverse Supreme Court
verdict, Masiyiwa received an important piece of
advice from a person who had been present at the
historic negotiations at Lancaster House in London
that paved the way for Zimbabwe’s independence
in 1980. This person suggested a constitutional
argument against the PTC monopoly. Masiyiwa
then went to meet De Bourbon with a copy of
the Constitution, and pointed to Section 20, which
said – “Every Zimbabwean has a right to receive
and impart information without hindrance.”
Masiyiwa suggested to De Bourbon that PTC’s
monopoly undermined this fundamental right
of Zimbabweans that was enshrined in the
Constitution.
De Bourbon explained that if they filed a
constitutional appeal, it would require all the
Supreme Court judges to make a Constitutional
Court, and to then rule on the constitutional
validity of PTC’s monopoly. He recommended
against Masiyiwa taking that course of action,
because it would be seen as a direct challenge to
the President and the Government.
“This is no longer the PTC now, you’re going –
we have to go against the Minister of Justice, we’ve
got to go against the full government to get this
removed, because you are effectively asking the
Supreme Court to strike a law. He said: So think
about it, because I wouldn’t recommend it. Go and
find something else to do” (Adrian De Bourbon,
as recounted by Strive Masiyiwa – Interview
transcript).
Tsitsi was also not in favor of challenging the
government, because she felt that it was a battle
that they could not win. O’Neill, on the other hand,
was fully in favor of filing the appeal. Masiyiwa and
his team prepared the groundwork for the appeal
for six months, and filed it in December 1994.
They supported the appeal with the evidence that
Zimbabwe had only 145,000 telephones, which
translated to 1.3 telephones per 100 people; over
95,000 applicants were on the waiting list; and it
took an average of five tries to complete a call. As
De Bourbon had anticipated, the government’s
reaction was very negative. Masiyiwa explained,
“(T)he Government was just absolutely livid,
you know. I mean, people told me that they had
- people come and tell me the things that the
President had said, and that the generals had said I mean, the whole system turned on me, the Secret
Service, everything. Retrofit lost all its Government
work. We didn’t just lose the Government work,
we were never paid even to this day for any work
we had been doing. We were just ordered to
leave Government sites, work, everything (Strive