Author: L.S.M Kabweza
Techzim is hiring an Editor
Techzim is looking for an Editor to join us. We are a fairly small company and we believe in cultivating a sense of ownership in all our employees, giving them the support, resources, and autonomy to enable them to succeed. The Editor plays a key part in Techzim’s strategy as a whole. The ideal person […]
AMH e-Papers. WhatsApp Distribution, Privacy And Payments Problems
After launching and then gradually discontinuing e-paper sales and subscriptions about a year ago, Alpha Media Holdings has re-introduced the format and business model. This re-introduction has been spurred more by the government ordered 21-day COVID-19 lockdown, which has meant no sales (or a very steep decline) of the physical paper on the streets. Here’s an advert […]
Payment with Ecocash test
This is a test targeted at a specific group. If you got here via a link on social media, rss or email, please just ignore and close the tab. sorry. Otherwise, help us test this payment process. It’ll deduct 10 cents from your EcoCash balance. Quick NetOne, Econet, And Telecel Airtime Recharge Number to recharge: […]
OneFusion Customers Angry Over Depleting Airtime. NetOne Blames Facebook, Continues To Advertise & Sell Faulty Product
Over the past several days, NetOne customers have been complaining bitterly about how the once popular OneFusion mobile broadband bundle has been a huge letdown. Data is depleting quickly. Disappearing some say. Pictures and videos on Facebook and WhatsApp won’t load. The complaining has been happening on social media mostly; WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter. NetOne says […]
AG: ICT Minister Mandiwanzira got loans from POTRAZ without gov approval
[This article from the 24th of July 2016 has been republished because it is related to current events as they concern Minister Supa Mandiwanzira and the corruption allegations leveled against him] With fresh allegations of corruption already being levelled against the ICT Minister Supa Mandiwanzira, it doesn’t do him any good that the Auditor General is […]
Zimbabwe 2018 National Budget Statement (PDF Download)
The 2018 National Budget Statement presented before Parliament today by the Finance and Economy Planning Minister Patrick Chinamasa. Here’s a PDF download below. 2018 National Budget Statement Quick NetOne, Econet, And Telecel Airtime Recharge Number to recharge: Airtime amount ($): EcoCash or OneMoney number: Buy Please dial our USSD code *405# on your phone to […]
Update: TelOne statement on major internet outage in Zimbabwe. Country lost 2 major internet links
As you may know, the internet was mostly down in Zimbabwe today. The main cause as we have established so far is that a Liquid Telecom fibre link supplying most of the country’s internet (directly to Liquid and ZOL customers, but also indirectly through leased capacity to TelOne, Dandemutande and other providers), was down. So […]
Activist, O’Donovan, charged for attempting to overthrow Zimbabwean government using Twitter
A few days ago, a woman called Martha O’Donovan, who works for a local activist organisation called Magamba Network, was arrested by the Zimbabwean government on the charge of undermining the authority of the president with a tweet. Yes, a tweet, which you can read about here. There have been some further developments since. Today, a […]
Big Zimbabwean internet provider, Dandemutande, suffers major outage. Zimbabwe’s .co.zw addresses momentarily rendered unavailable
Techzim is reliably informed that Dandemutande, one of the internet access providers in Zimbabwe, has suffered a major outage rendering some of its key services unavailable. The company was hit by a major power outage at one of its data centers in Harare on the morning of Thursday 26 October 2017. The outage apparently resulted in […]
Opera Mini is fast losing mobile market share to Google Chrome in Africa
Not so long ago, Opera’s ultra-lightweight browser, Opera Mini, used to be the top mobile browser in Africa. Not anymore. The company has lost that top spot to Google’s Chrome. According to renowned global analytics company, StatCounter, in September 2016 Opera Mini had 57% market share in Africa and Google Chrome had just 18%. Now, a […]
WhatsApp almost half of all mobile data traffic in Zimbabwe
Last year, Techzim wrote an article titled “WhatsApp IS the internet in Zimbabwe, accounts for 34% of mobile internet traffic“. It was after the local telecoms regulator in the country, POTRAZ, had provided statistics showing the apps dominance. That dominance is only increasing. This week POTRAZ released some new numbers that show that WhatsApp now […]
Jonathan Moyo’s Gmail hacked
Prominent and outspoken Zimbabwean politician, Jonathan Moyo, said yesterday that his Gmail account was hacked and his password changed. As a result, he’s been locked out of his mailbox. The hack, according to him, happened yesterday around 3PM (16 September). Moyo also said yesterday that Google has so far refused to give him back control of the mailbox. […]
For the second time, Kwese TV operations suspended
Kwese TV has been suspended again. As you may already be aware, the Broadcasting Authority appealed to the Supreme Court to challenge Kwese TV’s high court ‘win’. Legally, that meant Dr. Dish, the company that distributes the Kwese TV service, had to stop operations. Techzim noticed however that a day after the BAZ appeal was filed, […]
Apple reseller, Solution Centre, responds to USD shortage in Zim. Suspends credit & price guarantees
Bad money has driven out good. There’s a shortage of US dollars in Zimbabwe. The government insists the Bond Notes are equivalent to USDs. They are not, and the market is increasingly clear about it. So businesses have been responding to that reality. It started with the banks. For months now they have been requiring […]
Huge remittances milestone for Africa as TerraPay gets SA license
A mobile payments and remittances startup called TerraPay may have achieved what could turn out to be a huge industry milestone in the remittances space in Africa. The startup announced today that it has secured a license from the Reserve Bank of South Africa to conduct low-value international money transfers in the country. It’s a big […]
Kwese TV distributor accuses DStv of consumer exploitation. Kettles & Pots?
In the letter Kwese TV distributors wrote to the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe seeking to have their licence restored, the company accused BAZ of protecting DStv. Dr Dish explains in the letter that DStv is enjoying regulator protection while exploiting Zimbabwean customers. The letter paints the picture that the current state of the TV market, where […]
Game of Thrones demand knocks out The Pirate Bay
If you visited The Pirate Bay for the Game of Thrones season finale torrent earlier this week, you probably contributed directly to knocking the site offline. According to a report on Torrentfreak, high demand for the Game of Thrones season finale this week temporarily overloaded the torrent site taking it offline intermittently on Monday and Tuesday. Apparently, traffic […]
Kwese TV: The Full Dr Dish letter to BAZ demanding reversal of license cancellation
25 August 2017 The Chief Executive Officer Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe 27 Boscobel West Drive Highlands HARARE Dear Sir Re: Invalid Notice of cancellation of License No. CD0004 held by Dr Dish (Pvt) Ltd Introduction We act for Dr Dish (Pvt) Ltd. We have been instructed to respond to your letter of 22 August 2017 […]
Zanu-PF politicians on Kwese TV: Sudden progressive thinking or just usual politics?
Yesterday, through an article in The Herald, some unnamed people (who are probably just either the media & broadcasting services ministry, the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe, or a media parastatal under the ministry) accused Dr. Dish of lobbying politicians in their drive to establish Kwese TV services in Zimbabwe. If you have been following the stories around the […]
Exclusive: Kwese TV distributor demands reversal of licence cancellation by government. Threatens legal action
Techzim can exclusively reveal that the company distributing Kwese TV in Zimbabwe has written to the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ) demanding that the cancellation of its licence be reversed within 24 hours. Kwese TV in Zimbabwe is providing satellite television broadcasting through Dr Dish, a licensed (or not depending on who you think makes […]
“ZBC-TV really sucks!” says Jonathan Moyo
It’s one thing ordinary people knowing that ZBC TV, the government owned television station in Zimbabwe, is bad. It is quite another when a government minister, and one that has been in charge of ZBC itself twice says it himself. “ZBC-TV really sucks” said Jonathan Moyo today in a tweet today. Moyo was commenting on […]
NetOne’s OneWallet to be rebranded to OneMoney
Techzim can exclusively reveal that NetOne is working on rebranding its mobile service from OneWallet to OneMoney. The rebranding will be part of a relaunch of the product after the company migrated it to a new Huawei powered platform. The plan to relaunch OneWallet was revealed in January this year. According to sources Techzim spoke […]
Zim Government’s ownership of Multichoice Zimbabwe and why it’s reluctant to license Kwese TV
The statement by the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe yesterday announcing that Kwese TV is not legally licensed to provide satellite TV services came as a huge disappointment to a lot of Zimbabweans. The interest in an alternative to DStv, which has so far enjoyed a monopoly on TV entertainment is quite huge in Zimbabwe. The […]
Kwese TV not licensed, says Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe
Barely a day after Econet Wireless Zimbabwe announced that customers can now subscribe to the new Kwese TV service, the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ) has released a statement saying that Kwese TV is not yet licensed to operate in the country. BAZ has also said that the licence Kwese TV has used to launch its […]
Kwese TV now available at Econet shops in Zimbabwe. $49 for installation, decoder & first month subs (Update)
Update: Econet has since suspended selling Kwese TV after the government announced that Kwese is operating illegally. After weeks of speculation, Econet has finally announced the availability of the Kwese pay TV service at its shops in Zimbabwe. In an announcement on social media the newspapers today, Econet said customers can now visit any of […]
Exclusive: Zimpost to launch a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO)
Zimpost, Zimbabwe’s government owned postal and courier company, will be launching a mobile virtual network soon. Techzim is reliably informed that the company is in the advanced stages of implementing the project and is awaiting only for the license from POTRAZ. If implementation and licensing goes according to plan, Zimpost will effectively become Zimbabwe’s first […]
ZBC starts broadcasting news bulletins on Facebook Live
Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) is trialing the broadcasting of its content on Facebook Live. The government owned broadcaster started going live on Facebook with regular TV broadcast two days ago on 16 August. Yesterday, the 8PM news bulletin as well as some regular tv shows were broadcast live on Facebook for about 2 hours. The […]
Econet attempts to steal thunder from NetOne’s OneTech with civil servants smartphone offer
In a move seemingly aimed at competing with NetOne’s launch of financed smartphones today, Econet Wireless Zimbabwe has just announced a smartphone financing offer. Econet reached out with a press release close to the end of the day announcing “huge credit scheme that will empower civil servants and all eligible government employees to get new […]
Barclays Bank reduces Visa limits; $150 per day for standard cards
Barclays Bank has revised its Visa debit card daily limits downwards. The bank’s standard cards have been reduced to a daily limit of $100 on Point of Sale (PoS) and $50 on ATM while the prestige segment of cards have been reduced to $150 on PoS and also $50 on ATM. The new limits kick in […]
STEM focused Robert Mugabe University will cost $1 billion & Zimbabweans are angry
Yesterday, the government announced that it has approved the spending of at least US $1 billion to establish a STEM focused university in honour of President Robert Mugabe. The amount allocated to the university is equivalent to about a quarter of Zimbabwe’s annual budget. The Minister of Higher & Tertiary Education, Science & Technology Development, Jonathan Moyo, announced […]