The Zimbabwean government has launched what it calls a National Cybersecurity Training Programme, aiming to train 10 000 young people in digital defence. But behind the polished speeches and grand promises lies a deeply disturbing agenda. President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s regime is not building a digital future for the youth. It is building an army of online enforcers to monitor, silence and control the voices of ordinary Zimbabweans.
Information and Communication Technology Minister Tatenda Mavetera proudly unveiled the programme, calling it a groundbreaking moment for the country. She described the initiative as a step toward empowering youth with skills in cybersecurity and digital resilience. But many Zimbabweans see through the smoke. They know this is not about empowerment. It is about surveillance. It is about creating a digital version of the same system that has suppressed dissent offline for decades.
According to Mavetera, the programme will produce ethical hackers and cybersecurity analysts who will guard Zimbabwe’s digital space. But in a country where peaceful protesters are jailed, journalists are harassed and opposition voices are crushed, the term guardian raises alarm instead of comfort. Who are these guardians meant to protect The people or the ruling party
The recruits are already being dubbed varakashi, a term with chilling associations. It recalls the online trolls and propagandists who have long been used to intimidate critics of the regime. Now, the government is giving them formal training and presenting it as national development. They are not building a cybersecurity task force. They are building a digital militia.
Mavetera also announced that the programme will include 160 scholarships for youth across the SADC region through a partnership with Cybers and the Komib Foundation. She claimed this will open doors to a global industry worth over 200 billion US dollars. But critics rightly ask how many will truly benefit and how many will simply be absorbed into the machinery of state surveillance. In a country plagued by corruption and nepotism, opportunities are rarely awarded on merit. They are given to the loyal.
The minister called on young people in Zimbabwe and the wider SADC region to step up and shape the future. But for many observers, the future being shaped is not one of innovation or leadership. It is a future of digital repression. A future where the state watches not only what you say in the streets but what you post in your private chat groups. A future where fear extends from the physical world into the virtual one.
This programme does not exist in a vacuum. It comes after years of tightening control over the media, the Internet and the civic space. It comes after threats to shut down social media during protests. It comes after arrests of activists for simply speaking their minds online. Zimbabwe is not building a digital defence. It is building a digital prison.
To the youth of Zimbabwe this is a moment to resist. Do not be lured by promises of scholarships and careers while your role is to become the eyes and ears of a regime that fears its own people. Real empowerment comes from freedom not surveillance. Real innovation comes from creativity not control. If the government truly wanted to empower the youth it would invest in open Internet access in schools not secretive training for cyber spies.
This programme is not a proud moment. It is a dangerous one. And the silence of the international community only emboldens this creeping authoritarianism. The rest of the world must pay attention. The Internet is being militarised. Speech is being criminalised. And the youth are being weaponised.
In the name of cybersecurity Zimbabwe is being wired for tyranny.
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