Usually you expect politicians to be the last to know what’s going on especially anything tech related. Politicians seem to come from some other planet where long windy speeches are loved and appreciated or even understood. It’s refreshing to see tech entering the political discourse this election.
Most times technology is discussed at political forums in association with ‘we want to do something for our youth.’ I hate that condescending and uninformed cliche tone. The MDC Alliance manifesto reference to technology is anything but condescending and it is not the regular youthie coated piece of text that someone placed as an after thought meant to attract the young.
Their proposition is not vague too. Here’s a block quote:
Expansion of the range of e-applications that are available, particularly in government, health, education, accounting, engineering and financial services.
The MDC Alliance will ensure that the following services are available:
i. Online visa applications;
ii. Online passport application;
iii. Online voter registration;
iv. Online access to ID cards. births and death registration certificates
6.8.1 Block Chain revolution
Block chain technology is the epicentre of the fourth industrial revolution. The block chain revolution technology. is a complex. growing list of records and platforms (Blocs) which are technically linked and secure though cryptography.
The MDC Alliance government will promote the integration and use of Block Technology in the following areas:
i. Finance and Banking.
ii. Identity Management
iii. Asset registration
iv. Crypto Assets
v. Revenue Collection
6.8.2 Roll Out Phase of the fourth revolution
The MDC Alliance government will roll-out the integration of blockchain technology in industrialization through the following:
i. Setting up task force teams. for each of the priority areas identified above. made up of subject matter experts to fast track policy guidelines and to advise on the formation of permanent structures to deal with the continuous evolution in this space.
ii. Radical transformation of existing government departments to align with the new requirements of 4th industrial revolution. This include restructuring of existing departments and the formation of new departments….
Blockchain
Blockchain was a surprise inclusion. Politicians being politicians they must have followed the ensuing uproar after the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe attempted to outlaw cryptocurrenciies and they may want to capitalise. Then again there was equal noise from those who thought it was a good move so maybe the MDC Alliance has a position on this beyond politicking.
It’s interesting that they seem to have captured the scope of what blockchain technology is about. You can check out some of these applications of the technology as they relate to Zimbabwe and how local companies are using blockchain in the Techzim Insights’ State of Blockchain Technology in Zimbabwe Report. To buy the report just Ecocash the fee of $4.99 to the Techzim Merchant Account 83688 then email the confirmation of payment to admin@techzim.co.zw and we will email it to you. You can email if you want to use other modes of payment and we will assist.
Buzz words
I guess politicians will be politicians. I am not a fan of buzz words. One such is, ‘4th Industrial Revolution.’ These terms tend to be meaningless sometimes. I prefer people say the specifics of what they are talking about and not refer to ambiguous new age cliches. Anyway that’s just me.
The MDC Alliance president may have got into an embarrassing situation with the president of Rwanda after he alleged that Rwanda’s developments in the ICT space was partly due to him (Chamisa) but his party (or his alliance of parties- Zim...) seems to be seriously looking at how emerging technologies can be applied in Zimbabwe right now.
Rwanda’s national currency has been put on the blockchain by the way so maybe, just maybe…
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17 comments
Wow, its exciting to see one of the leading parties talking of adoption of cutting edge technology. Block chain technology would certainly reduce corruption in government and increase efficiency. Hopefully we get to experience this soon!
MDC knows what’s up. Not the Geriatric Junta Government.
It is just that, promises to the easily excited Zimbo
I know… it’s my fear as well. I hope they are sincere and I hope all political formation will also be as sincere and imagine a new trajectory for Zimbabwe
I stand with m.d.c forever.chamisa for President. Its time to shine
What has he done as MP for Kuwadzana to demonstrate that he can do even a fraction of what he is saying? What did he used cdf for?
The te question no one is asking and no one seems to want the answer. If you cannot run Kuwadzana what about?….these are career politians and we know that they want ….?
I don’t know what you expect an MP to do with a paltry $80K(i.e CDF). I have seen people praising MPs like Mliswa who use their personal funds to develop their constituencies. The problem is these guys end up expecting a return on their “investments”. One way we could fight corruption is to stop MPs from using their own funds for community development. When measuring MP performance, I would rather look at their contribution in parliament rather than what they have done in their constituency, because I expect nothingto be done from the paltry $80K CDF.
Clap clap clap
I am actually against the CDF entirely. Let MP’s do their job as legislators. This whole nonsense of voting for vanhu vanotipa mbeu is what the problem is. If it’s clear in the electorate’s mind that the MP’s job is to represent them and to make laws as proposed by them etc then we will know what qualifies a good MP.
Development work: we have local governments for that. Accountability is difficult when there is unnecessary overlap
Blockchain Is certainly at the epicentre of the 4th Industrial revolution. Also allows professionals to “transparently” work from wherever generating documents and memos etc. A combination of Blockchain, Internet of Things and a robust communications network could see limited experts in certain areas able to offer their services to more than one cause and more than one organisation at the same time. Strives current focus on Internet of Things seems to fit into this concept very well. However, I wonder how vulnerable we can become if Cyberwar techniques were to be applied against a country which is highly dependent on such technological solutions. The next level of wars is certainly going to be Cyberbased with “no man down” situations until a war is over. Imagine drones and robots fighting each other with commanders sitting in Command Centres. Will be very interesting indeed.
AI is the epicenter not blockchain, Its a really cool technology but its not as revolutionary as AI.
AI is cool if its own used on self learning machines. Bt the weakeness is that it needs constant vast amount of data to make better decisions. That vast data access is not available in Zim since there is a lot of island of internet infrustructure and majority are not connected
A landlocked country with few well known international internet exit points is not going to win such war, but you are right, next wars are cyberspace and Russia is leading the pack
Its unfortunate TechZim continues to be politically biased. Tendai Biti mentioned their plan on cryptocurrencies when he was in UK. To want to link this statement to what has recently happened in Rwanda is unfortunate. Why dont you just ask for your readers take on the manifesto instead of leading people to your own opinion.
On the contrary hey. I am excited that tech and especially tech that has not gone mainstream yet is part of this election conversation.
I was unaware of Biti’s utterances in the UK, would have included.
Tina I am in agreement wih your observations. This is a refreshing thrust in politics!
Its not enought to say blockchain you have to show us how you will use it. They would have had me at AI, for example getting rid of ghost workers and repetitive jobs by replacing it with AI. Its not enough to just say blockchain revolution, they must be able to give specific examples of how it will help then we can start to consider.