Postal and Telecommunications Amendment Bill. H.B. 10, 2025

This is a Bill — H.B. 10 of 2025 — not law. It proposes a substantial rewrite of the Postal and Telecommunications Act and takes effect only if passed and brought into operation.

Three proposals stand out. First, space: nobody could use the orbital resources allocated to Zimbabwe by the International Telecommunications Union, or launch space objects in Zimbabwe's name, without an appropriate licence from the Authority — a licensing regime for satellite capacity that the current Act does not have. Second, competition: a new Part would identify licensees with economic dominance in the market as dominant licensees and require them to provide access to their facilities to other licensees, in order to curb anti-competitive conduct. Third, interception: a new Part XIB would provide, among miscellaneous matters, for the interception of communications that may be used in the commission of a criminal offence.

On spectrum, the Authority would manage the radio frequency spectrum across the range 8.3 kHz to 3000 GHz, plus any other range the Minister prescribes. It would develop and maintain a frequency allocation plan apportioning the spectrum into bands, and establish technical and operational standards for those bands in radiocommunication systems, having regard to international standards for compatibility and interoperability. No service provider could provide a service or transmit a signal by radio except under a radio frequency spectrum licence. Where a telecommunication installation causes harmful radio frequency interference to other telecommunication or broadcasting services, the Authority could request the service provider to modify or suspend its operation — even where the installation complies with every other requirement.

Licensing terminology would broaden: the "cellular telecommunication licence" would be repealed and replaced by a wider "telecommunications licence". The Authority would gain additional grounds on which to amend a licence or its terms and conditions.

On the institution, the Bill would introduce an objects section, amend the Authority's functions, and recompose the board in line with corporate governance principles and the Constitution's provisions on gender balance. Sections 7 to 15, 17 and 18 would be repealed and re-provided in a Second Schedule. The Authority's funds would include donations approved by the Minister, and the Minister could give policy directions the Authority must observe. The Director-General's term would be aligned with corporate governance principles, with power to delegate to staff, and the board could establish departments or divisions.

Disputes would get a dedicated route: a new Part XIA would provide a dispute settlement mechanism and establish a complaints tribunal, with tenure of office for its members. Part XII would be amended to cover the Minister's regulation-making power, administrative fines, and proceedings where it appears to the Minister that the Authority may have failed to comply with the Act. Additional offences and penalties are introduced, and the Universal Service Fund's objects are amended, with auditors given the same powers over the Fund as over the Authority's own accounts.

Four schedules would set out the powers of the Authority, provisions applicable to the board, the classification of radio stations, and the rights, powers and duties of telecommunication licensees operating telecommunication systems.

This summary follows the Bill's explanatory memorandum. The Bill's operative text runs to well over a hundred thousand characters and was not read in full, so specific thresholds, penalty levels and the detail of the interception and dominance provisions should be checked against the Bill itself before relying on them.