First the price of mobile data went up drastically overnight. Then it emerged Zimbabwe’s government is preparing a law to give its feared security forces new powers to intercept private communications, seize devices such as smartphones and jail “abusers” for up to five years. An army chief said this was needed to deal with “cyber‑based destabilisation”, since technology was being used to “mobilise people to do the wrong things”.

Desperate times call for desperate measures. For after 36 years in power, Robert Mugabe’s chokehold on his country seems to be slipping. There have been public-sector strikes, street protests, desertions by key allies, even demonstrations at a cricket Test Match. The economy is shattered, cash machines empty, supplies in shops dwindling, and state coffers so dry that the regime struggles to pay salaries to its henchmen in the police and army.