Meltdown!

Nelson Chamisa, the MDC-T Minister of ICT, who is presiding over the complete and utter massacre of quality Internet services in Zimbabwe. The 100 days in which he promised to have upped quality and capacity by 60% are almost over and instead we have a 60% decline in the same!

Harare, Zimbabwe, 06 August 2009

Glitches with Internet connection have prevented me from posting since last night.

It really is a complete meltdown, for me at least.

As you know I have several ways in which I try to connect online and get on with the job.

But all three ways broke down at the same time starting last night. At the office, our so-called broadband connection turns out to be nothing of the sort. The ISP was very helpful, they came in today with a new ADSL modem to try and see if the problem was our modem, but it was not.

In the end, with the new-fangled advanced modem, they managed to pinpoint the problem as emanating from TelOne, the State-owned phone company who supply our lease line for broadband.

They also happen to be the only legal gateway in Zimbabwe for all outgoing traffic. The measure was put in place by Mugabe's government to monitor what it is that people in Zimbabwe send through the Internet.

The new Minister in charge, Nelson Chamisa, appears happy to keep this provision on the books. Which is sad.

This is why you must never listen to anyone trying to convince you from outside Zimbabwe that "things are changing, the MDC is having an impact etc etc".

The new guys are only interested in feathering their own nests and pay no attention whatsoever to the plight of the people.

Some of the things they can do are simple and do not require any money, such as repealing this stupid law because there are companies here with the money and the infrastructure to provide alternative and reliable means of connecting us to the world.

We will try and see if this can be sorted tomorrow, but.......it is a state company, after all and the man in charge is one Nelson Chamisa, who must be at par with or less competent than the ZANU PF lot that has destroyed our country.

My other portable connection also packed up and this one is directly owned by the state company and relies on their infrastructure, so there is no surprise there.

Which leaves the slow dial-up option.

This is what I am on.

Not that there is much news anyway.

Still, I thought you might like to know that this is what is affecting me at the moment. I expect things should be back to normal when the government feels good and ready to do something about all this.