Internet hackers attack Zimbabwean government websites
By Violet Gonda
21 December 2006

Robert Mugabe has waged a relentless war on independent media over the past five years. Newspapers, radios, television stations have all fallen to draconian new laws, jamming the air waves and bombing print works. The government has gone to great lengths to gain total control over the information consumed in the country. But now it seems the realm of cyber space has resisted the iron grip of the information ministry. It appears a group of international internet hackers have taken over sections of the government’s own web site.

A visit to the page for the Ministry of Public Service, Labour & Social Welfare on the Zimbabwean government’s website - www.gta.gov.zw,

shows that it has been attacked by a group calling itself, White Hat Security Institution (a mafia hacking team from Iran ). It is not clear who the hackers are or why they chose to target this particular government department.

The White Hat Security Institution website was created on the 3rd of September. Experts say this is a group that specialises in hacking government websites. Their aim may not have been to target Mugabe or the ruling party specifically, but they have disrupted an important site and brought attention to the issue of freedom of expression.

On the other hand, some activists have imitated the ZANU PF publicity website - www.zanupfpub.co.zw with their own www.zanupfpub.com and posted political content which shows in graphic detail certain brutalities perpetrated by Mugabe’s security forces. One headline on the site says; “ Mugabe's cowardly police attack and brutalise peaceful WOZA women and their babies...” A video clip showing police officers beating a group of peaceful protestors lying down is also posted on the site. There are also several pictures of the aftermath of Operation Murambatsvina, the government’s so called clean up exercise that displaced thousands of people.

It appears the Zimbabwe Parliament website has also been hacked by the same activists. This time the attack is on the ZANU PF link on the website - http://www.parlzim.gov.zw/Resources/resources.html . Clicking on the link for POLITICAL PARTIES and then on the link to Zanu PF, the page shows the same stories of the WOZA beatings, the police video and the Murambatsvina pictures.

The Mugabe regime has deliberately cut out the media space and this is the first time that the tables have been turned. This comes in a year in which we have seen disgruntled Zimbabweans increasingly turning to alternative methods of peaceful resistance.

The Combined Harare Residents Association have been boycotting paying rates because of poor service delivery. Harare residents, tired of living with raw sewage flowing through their streets, embarked on a campaign of dumping buckets of sewage at their local council offices.