The CYBER CITY project in Mt Hampden, Harare, being spearheaded by President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s administration will enrich top leaders and be the cornerstone in the government’s surveillance of its citizens, evidence gathered by NewsDay Weekender has shown.
The technology for the project is from China. Implementation of the model, its organisational structure and management of the new city has already been announced by Cabinet.
Zimbabwe is building New Harare, a smart city on the outskirts of Harare that will be the new seat of government and have around 300 dwellings. A big money project to install a cybersecurity and biometric surveillance system throughout it is coming up against sharp criticism from digital rights activists.
The critics are accusing the country’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa of attempts to transform the nation into a surveillance state.
Read more: Zimbabwe govt faces criticism over biometric surveillance project for new smart city
As the city of Harare faces rapid population growth coupled with climate change, a new state-of-the-art, sustainable capital city is being built in the suburb of Mount Hampden.
In Zimbabwe, the ‘Zim Cybercity’ is being launched in Mount Hampden, west of the capital Harare. It is a smart city comprising 250 homes, including 80 luxury villas with green spaces, offices and commercial spaces connected to artificial intelligence (AI) as well as a digital transport system. The project is being led by the Zimbabwean Ministry of Finance and Economic Development.
Read more: ZW: A $500m smart city 18km from Harare to be built
- Government backs multimillion-dollar Zim Cyber City
- Rights groups question project's surveillance ambitions
- Smart cities stir privacy fears from Egypt to Saudi Arabia
In a fertile stretch of fields and farms dubbed New Harare, Zimbabwe is building a high-tech "cyber city" a world away from the traffic-clogged streets and overcrowded slums of the country's nearby capital.
Read more: Zimbabwe's Cyber City: Urban Utopia or Surveillance Menace?
Zimbabwe’s political leaders have a remedy for the collapse of the capital Harare: Build a new “cybercity” with as much as $60 billion of other people’s money.
The development in Mount Hampden, 11 miles northeast of Harare, is slated to be the site of the national parliament, headquarters of the central bank, the high and supreme courts, mineral auction centers, a stock exchange, a presidential palace and luxury villas.
Read more: Zimbabwe’s solution for Harare’s collapse, is a new modern smart city