Zimbabwe Continues Slouch Towards Pariah State

After forcibly seizing farms from white owners, causing massive food shortages, undervaluing their currency by not realistically reporting skyrocketing inflation, and imposing price controls, now Zimbabwe has passed a law mandating that communications businesses, including postal services, must make sure that "systems are technically capable of supporting lawful interceptions at all times". Some may argue that the monitoring of communications is similar to the Patriot Act in the United States, but that law was passed to ensure timely interception of messages during war time, which America already possesses the capability of monitoring. In Zimbabwe's case, its recent economic troubles are of their dictator Mugabe's own creation, and forcing businesses to submit to monitoring services' technical incapabilities is the pure stifling of the human right of free expression. Totalitarian states usually use the canard of "crime prevention and national security" to enhance their ability to find and remove voices of dissent, so Mugabe's actions are no surprise, especially when the state is beginning to expect an opposition coalition to emerge and advocate for the oppressive regime's removal. Mugabe blames Western sanctions for their economic turmoil, when it was the total collapse of infrastructure during the forced seizure of white-owned businesses that was the real origin. Passing this new law will do nothing to remove those sanctions either.