The Political Economy of Digital Surveillance: Actors, Powers and Interests

Abstract

In this chapter, we explore the political economy of digital surveillance in the southern African region. Our intention is to outline the actors that influence the growing practice of digital surveillance, unpack their interests and examine how much power these actors have. In doing so, we utilize cases from selected countries that expose these actors, their powers and their interests. In Zambia, we make the argument that the much-vaunted smart city initiative of the country is increasingly becoming a weapon of illegal surveillance. In Zimbabwe, we make the argument that since the military coup that ended Mugabe’s 37-year reign in power, the military has gradually ascended into power. In the process, they have usurped the powers of civilian institutions tasked with surveillance. Consequently, the military in Zimbabwe have (illegally) become the centre around which surveillance is organized and practised. In South Africa, we trace how during the Jacob Zuma regime, the intelligence and police agencies have become involved in political-motivated surveillance practices in the service-specific political elites. What we broadly argue is that surveillance in southern Africa is a complicated entanglement of actors’ powers, all with conflating, and sometimes different, interests.