Zimbabwe High Court halts seizure of Econet customer database

The High Court of Zimbabwe has granted an injunction halting a warrant for seizure of the entire customer database of Econet Wireless. This followed an application by Econet Wireless, and civil society organisations the Media Institute of Southern Africa’s Zimbabwe Chapter (Misa-Zimbabwe) and the Zimbabwe Human Rights Association (Zimrights). The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe alleges that Econet’s uses its Ecocash mobile money service to purchase foreign currency, against government policy. The government had earlier stopped mobile money services in a bid to reorganise its monetary policy.