By Jane Chanda
Opposition Economic Freedom Fighters leader Kasonde Mwenda says the Closed-Circuit Television Public Protection Bill is a “digital dictatorship” that criminalises everyday use of technology and threatens digital freedoms.
In an interview with Daily Revelation yesterday, Mwenda said the bill was retrogressive and oppressive, representing the most chilling assault on digital freedoms, civil liberties, and basic technological rights since Zambia’s return to multiparty democracy.
“This bill seeks to criminalise what millions of Zambians consider every day, harmless use of technology—such as livestreaming a Church service, video-calling loved ones at a funeral or wedding, broadcasting a school graduation, or even installing a security camera at one’s private home unless licensed by the government,” Mwenda said.
According to him, a violation of this law could lead to a staggering five-year prison sentence or a fine of up to 500,000 penalty units, which he described as “tyranny disguised as regulation.”
The EFF leader pointed out that Section 13 of the bill stated that “a person shall not operate or use a closed-circuit television on public or private premises without a licence … and shall not use a mobile closed-circuit television without authorisation.”
Mwenda also highlighted Section 24(1)(b), which he said shockingly stated that “a person shall not use a closed-circuit television … to capture audio recordings on public premises.”
He said the law defined mobile closed-circuit television so broadly that ordinary smartphones now fell under its scope, making every Zambian with a phone capable of livestreaming a potential criminal unless they paid a recurring licensing fee to the government.
“This is an outrageous attempt to turn technology into a taxed privilege, rather than a tool for connection, expression, and safety,” he said.
Mwenda also noted that Live-streaming one’s child’s wedding could lead to five years in jail, video calling one’s mother from a graduation would make one a criminal, using CCTV to protect one’s home from burglars would be illegal without a license, and broadcasting a church service online would be punishable by prison.
He said the bill killed innovation, choked creativity, endangered public safety, and muzzled free expression, and was a direct betrayal of the promises of openness, digital empowerment, and democratic reform made by President Hakainde Hichilema.
“The EFF rejects this digital gag order in the strongest possible terms, describing it as an authoritarian overreach under the pretense of surveillance regulation designed not to protect the public but to control it,” Mwenda said.
He added that the EFF called on all Zambians, civic organisations, the church, artists, journalists, educators, students, and the wider digital community to stand up against the bill and demand that President Hichilema immediately halt any plans to sign it into law.
“Democracy cannot thrive in darkness, and this law seeks to switch off the lights on Zambia’s freedoms,” said Mwenda. “The EFF will not allow Zambia to be dragged into a new era of digital dictatorship, the party leader declared.”
