Wednesday, 26th July, 2023
ZAMBIA LAW DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION (ZLDC) CONCLUDES NATIONAL STAKEHOLDER CONSULTATIVE MEETINGS ON THE REVIEW OF THE CYBER SECURITY AND CYBER CRIMES ACT, NO 2 OF 2021
The Zambia Law Development Commission herein referred to as ‘the ZLDC’ or the ‘Commission’ wishes to update the nation on its progress in reviewing the Cyber Security and Cyber Crimes Act, No 2 of 2021.
The Cyber Security and Cyber Crimes Act has been subject to some unique challenges which have in turn affected its implementation. The main challenges relate to a general public outcry following the enactment, citing the lack of consultation during the drafting and enactment process; civil society bringing an action against the State challenging the constitutionality of some of the provisions of the Cyber Act; and the stringent rules on data localisation.
Cabinet at its 16th Cabinet Meeting approved, in principle, the amendment of the Cyber Security and Cyber Crimes Act in order to strengthen enforcement mechanisms and redefine concepts to align them to the Constitution and international and regional instruments. In view of this, in 2022, the Ministry of Technology and Science (MOTS) issued a call for comments to the general public, and key stakeholders. The information arising from the call was consolidated and used by MOTS to develop the draft Cyber Security and Cyber Crimes Bill, 2023.
It is against this background that the MOTS engaged the Zambia Law Development Commission to undertake stakeholder consultations and finalise the law review process. The Commission undertook stakeholder engagement meetings in all the 10 provinces of Zambia from June to July, 2023 to solicit stakeholder views on the draft Cyber Security and Cyber Crimes Bill, 2023. The Participants were drawn from: Civil Society, Faith-based organisations; academia; professional bodies; media; government departments, and the private sector including the banking sector.
Some of the key issues raised by stakeholders centered on the need to enhance definitions including those of critical information; critical information infrastructure; hate speech and child pornography. A need was also identified for the establishment of sectorial computer incident response teams; provision of a cyber-security register and review of the processes pertaining to lawful interception.
The national stakeholder consultative meetings were concluded yesterday, 25th July,2023 with the last provincial meeting held in Lusaka at Mulungushi International Conference Centre. The MOTS and ZLDC will continue to receive written submissions from stakeholders and the public up to 11th August 2023. This will be followed by a final drafting meeting to incorporate submissions from the public and the handover of the draft Bill to the Ministry of Justice for finalisation and onward transmission to Parliament.
We express our sincere gratitude to all the stakeholders that participated in the review process and further assure the public that once the law review is completed, the Commission will engage in information dissemination activities where the proposed legislation will be explained in detail.
Issued By
HOPE M. NDHLOVU-CHANDA
DIRECTOR & COMMISSION SECRETARY