Yesterday we were surprised to see a post on Twitter where one prolific social user claimed that the Zimbabwean government had developed their own ZOOM like software and would be ditching ZOOM for this indigenous solution. That had us raising our eyebrows, the Zimbabwean government can hardly keep their own websites up to date even though they are built using CMS platforms like WordPress and Joomla. How then had they been able to build their own platform, a feat much more complicated than this?

Well it turns out the social media user was only partly right. The Zimbabwean government was actually ditching ZOOM and switching to a platform known as GlueVP with similar features to ZOOM. GlueVP was actually developed by a Zimbabwean but here is the catch he is an expat living abroad in the diaspora. So it’s not a system developed by the Zimbabwean government. It’s a system developed by a Zimbabwean living abroad in South Africa.

So why are they making the switch? Well, you can chalk it up all to paranoia. ZOOM and other similar platforms are owned by companies that reside in Western Countries that have called Zimbabwe an adversary. What is to stop these companies from handing over data or allowing agents in their countries to set up wiretaps when presented with say a FISA warrant? That seems to be the thinking. In fact, when it was launched (yesterday!), GlueVP used this type of marketing in a bid to lure African entities and governments into their fold. Remember this might be baseless paranoia or the government could be onto something here as they say just because someone is paranoid doesn’t mean someone is not out to get them.

To see how GlueVP works see the video below.