Zimbabwean despot "laughing" Bob Mugabe's government has rubber-stamped new laws granting his cronies free reign to snoop on communications in the impoverished state.

The Harare harlequin's "Interception of Communications Bill", which was proposed last year, was waved through by his parliament last week.

It hands the communications minister powers to dish out warrants for raiding post, emails, web browsing, and phone lines. Calls were already heavily monitored by the regime at the behest of its increasingly powerless judiciary, so the bill basically cuts out the middle man and acknowledges the internet age.

It compels ISPs to install bugging equipment and make it available to the government at their own expense. Reports say China will offer the hardware.

Mugabe's defenders claim the laws are no different to anti-terror legislation in the US and UK.