Techzim

Update: EcoCash has regained control of its X account and removed the unauthorised posts.

The account had earlier appeared to be compromised, with explicit content and messages from an individual claiming responsibility for the takeover.

Full story:

EcoCash’s X Account Appears To Have Been Hacked EcoCash’s X account appears to have been hacked, with unauthorised posts, explicit content appearing as the company works to regain control.

The correct answer was Miko Rwayitare.

Many people chose Strive Masiyiwa, which is understandable given his impact on our telecoms sector. The name "Ian Muckson Smith" was our own creation. As far as we know, there is no notable figure by that name connected to African telecommunications.

Miko Rwayitare, a Rwandan engineer and entrepreneur, is widely credited with pioneering Africa's mobile telecommunications industry.

In 1989, through Telecel, he helped launch Africa's first cellular mobile network in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo). At a time when mobile phones were still rare and expensive, the project demonstrated that mobile telecommunications could work on the continent.

Telecel International eventually expanded across Africa and made its way into Zimbabwe. Telecel Zimbabwe was established in the late 1990s as a partnership between Telecel International and the Empowerment Corporation, an interesting consortium of Zimbabwean business groups.

Telecel would go on to operate in more than a dozen African countries, helping spread mobile connectivity across the continent. Rwayitare later sold his shares to Orascom Telecom in the early 2000s.

Rwayitare died in Brussels, Belgium, on 25 September 2007 at the age of 65 following complications after surgery.

Before Africa's mobile giants like Vodacom, MTN, Safaricom and Econet became household names, Miko Rwayitare had already helped prove that the continent could build and sustain its own mobile networks.