By Jonathan Mbiriyamveka
VICTORIA FALLS — If you want to welcome a friend, you slaughter a chicken. If you want to welcome a relative, you slaughter a goat.
If you want to welcome a brother, you take them to Victoria Falls .
This Zimbabwean saying, delivered by POTRAZ Director General Dr Gift Machengete, opened the ITU Inter-Regional CyberDrill in Victoria Falls — an apt beginning for an event where ancient wisdom meets modern threats.
But it was another proverb that carried the weight of the gathering: “One finger cannot crush lice” .
A Shared Truth Across Cultures
Dr Machengete followed the African proverb with its Arabic counterpart: “One hand alone cannot clap” .
“These sayings, drawn from different cultures, express a shared truth: that meaningful progress is achieved through collaboration,” he told delegates from across Africa, the Arab region, Canada, Switzerland, the United States and India .
“In cybersecurity, this truth is even more urgent, because no single institution or nation possesses all the capability required to confront today’s evolving threats. Our strength lies in cooperation, trust and shared responsibility” .
Crossing the River Together
ICT Minister Tatenda Mavetera added her own proverb to the collection, drawing on a West African saying about crossing a river safely in a crowd .
“No single nation can navigate today’s threat landscape in isolation,” she warned .
The message, repeated in different registers throughout the morning, was consistent: cybersecurity is a “coalition of capabilities, not a competition between institutions” .
The Choice of Victoria Falls
The setting itself carried meaning. Dr Machengete welcomed delegates to a place “where humanity and nature exist in rare harmony” — a place where warthogs graze lawns and elephants wander the grounds .
“Cybersecurity is not a competition of institutions; it is a coalition of capabilities,” he said .
Practical Collaboration in Action
The words were not merely ceremonial. The CyberDrill, running from 30 June to 3 July 2026, brought together national CIRTs, regulators, police agencies, industry players and international partners in a four-day exercise designed to test readiness and build trust .
Minister Mavetera framed the event’s significance in stark terms: cybersecurity “is about protecting people” .
She described the participation of partners from Africa, the Arab region, and beyond as a reflection of a “shared commitment to strengthening global cyber resilience” .
A Call to Institutional Humility
The Minister closed with a call for honesty: delegates should be honest about what has not worked in their own jurisdictions and treat the exercise’s inevitable gaps as “things to be closed rather than concealed” .
Dr Machengete echoed the sentiment: “The success of this Cyber Drill will not be measured by the number of scenarios completed, but by the strength of the partnerships formed” .
“The strength of our cyber resilience will not be defined by the sophistication of our individual systems, but by the depth of trust that exists between us and the speed with which we are able to act together” .
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