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Robin Muchetu, Senior Reporter
ECONET wireless has made an urgent chamber application challenging the validity of the warrant of search and seizure by the police saying it is unlawful and constitutes a violation of their right to privacy and also right of privacy to their subscribers.
Econet Wireless was directed by the Zimbabwe Republic Police to provide subscriber/ customer information in its databases, all financial statements showing monetary transactions and summery of transient e-money/airtime credit sale as they were investigating allegations of Money Laundering and Proceeds of Crime Act by the service provider.
The warrant of Search and Seizure was served to Econet Wireless on 17 July 2020 required transactions from subscribers from 2 January 2020 to 30 June 2020.
Through their lawyers Mtetwa and Nyambirai Econet Wireless challenged the order.
“The Warrant of Search and Seizure is unlawful and constitutes a violation of the Applicants right to privacy and also the rights to privacy of the Applicants subscribers. The warrant of search and seizure is also widely and generally couched in that it is susceptible to being set aside,” they said.
Econet Wireless is being accused of eroding the Zimbabwean Dollar against the United States Dollar via its mobile based money platform Ecocash.
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe alleged that Econet Wireless was fraudulently creating and issuing non-attributable and non-auditable agent cellphone lines/ accounts.
They said the Ecocash platform was acting as a centre pivot of the galloping black market foreign exchange rate and therefore fueling the incessant price hikes of goods and services that are bedeviling the economy.
The RBZ also alleges that Econet has been conspiring with big merchants to act as the conduit through which they transfer hundreds and millions of dollars per day to runners on the streets who then buy US Dollars on their behalf.
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