Fromer Simba Sports Club spokesperson Mr Haji Manara accused the club’s board chairman Mohammed Dewji aka Mo of having spied on the latter’s mobile phone as well as the mobile phones of other club’s personnel in a tell-all press conference on Wednesday.
Mo Dewji was not immediately available to respond to the accusations if they are true or not. Simba SC acting spokesperson Mr Ezekiel Kamwaga told The Chanzo that: “The club has decided not to comment on anything [coming] from [Mr Manara’s] press conference.”
The VPL and Azam Federation Cup Champions 2021 Simba Football Club relieved Mr Manara of his duties as the club’s communications officer on July 28, 2021, following a wrangle between the Wekundu wa Msimbazi and Mr Manara over alleged sabotage and mistreatment. The club as a result appointed a seasoned journalist Mr Kamwaga as the acting Head of Information and Communication Department.
“I asked Mohammed: who are you [to spy on people’s mobile]?” said Mr Manara during the press conference in Dar es Salaam. It was after Mo Dewji had allegedly summoned Mr Manara to his office to show him the records of Manara’s phone tracking. Manara said that he found out that it was not just him that Mo was spying on but also other Simba SC players.
“Where do you obtain the rights to spy on people’s mobile phones?” Mr Manara claims to be asking the Tanzanian business magnet Mo Dewji. “Who gave you that authority, is it your money? I told [Mo]. I was seriously pissed off.”
While the constitution guarantees the right to privacy and other pieces of legislation appreciate the importance of data protection, Tanzania does not have a comprehensive law that addresses issues of privacy and data protection, two things which are increasingly becoming necessities given how digitization influences every aspect of people’s lives. Talks of Tanzania coming up with a bill on privacy and data protection law have been going on since 2018 but with zero results.
Speaking July 2, 2021, during the launching of a report An Overview of the Digital Ecosystem, Emerging and Applied Technologies on NGOs in Tanzania by Media Convergence, a local digital consultancy firm, Minister of Information and Communication Technologies Dr Faustine Ndugulile expressed his concerns at how Tanzania’s legal framework falls short of protecting people’s personal information, naming the changing of the status quo of one his ministries top priorities.
