MACRA ready with cyber crimes bill
The Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA) says it is almost ready with cyber crimes bill to be tabled and passed in the forthcoming sitting of parliament.
Director of Legal Services, Thokozani Chimbe, disclosed this at Grand Palace Hotel in Mzuzu on Thursday, where MACRA was holding an open day after doing the same in Blantyre and Lilongwe.
The open days were organised to showcase what MACRA does and to engage directly with various stakeholders on a wide range of issues under MACRA’s jurisdiction.
According to Chimbe, in line with the Communications Act, MACRA is supposed to engage all its stakeholders before making important decisions, hence the open days.
Touching on the issue of cyber crimes which are on the increase in the country, Chimbe said MACRA has been developing a cyber crimes bill and it is almost ready to be tabled in parliament.
“Cyber crime is like any other crime. It is not MACRA that enforces the law associated with it. It is still the police and the state advocate chambers. What MACRA is doing is to facilitate that there should be enough laws that will criminalise certain crimes because we are the champions of ICT of digitalisation. We realise the danger that comes with it that cyber crimes is the top threat,” remarked Chimbe.
Chairperson for Media, Information and Communications Committee of Parliament, Susan Dossi, who was also present at the event, told Nyasa Times the open days were very important in as far as information sharing is concerned. She added that her committee will do everything possible to have the bill tabled and passed.
“A lot of people are being swindled and there are a lot of fraudsters out there. As a committee, we have been interacting with different stakeholders and we have been discussing on how we can make sure that we end this issue of cyber crime. The plan is that the bill will come in during this coming session from 26th August. We are eagerly waiting to pass the bill,” she said.
MACRA was established pursuant to Section 3 of the Communications Act, 1998 of the Laws of Malawi to regulate the country’s communications sector.
