Rutendo Chirume

Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) have labeled the Private Voluntary Organizations (PVO) amendment bill as a piece of legislation which government wants to use in order to enforce authoritarian rule and thwart dissenting voices.
These CSOs feel that the Bill does not meet standards and best practices for the exercise of freedom of expression, free association and right to privacy.
Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum Executive Director Dr Musa Kika said the bill poses a needless threat to the work of CSOs, ultimately affecting citizens who are the prime beneficiaries of their work, and limiting the strength of democracy.
“The PVO Amendment Bill is in stark contradiction to the values of an open and democratic system. Worse still, it goes against the very mantra of Zimbabwe is open for business. How can Zimbabwe be genuinely open for business when it is closed for civic space and collective citizen action? Who invests in a country where whole institutions can be rearranged in this fashion?
“The Bill and its intended purpose are not fit for purpose; government should take an evidence risk-based approach to work with CSOs deemed at risk of money laundering and terrorism financing, not this blanket approach that will hurt citizens who benefit from NGOs and the economy. In any event, Zimbabwean NGOs have never been at risk nor a risk when it comes to money laundering and terrorism financing,” said Dr Kika.
Youth Decide Zimbabwe (YDZ) director Learnmore Munhangu said government has tried for the past years to suppress democracy and this bill will be used as a weapon against the law to eliminate citizen participation and humanitarian work by civic societies.
“The PVO Amendment Bill is like a stress reducent pill. Instead of focusing on reforms and pro-citizens realignment of the constitution, government is now proposing an impediment tool. We consider the PVO Amendment Bill a way to eliminate effective participation of citizens in civic society and humanitarian work. Over the past few years, we witnessed an exponential increment in levels of suppression, regression of democracy and weaponisation of the law against dissenting voices.
“The civic society used to play a very key role in exposing the ills and advocating for constitutionalism. This is an attempt to silence dissenting voices and further step towards authoritarian rule while protecting the elite at expense of national interests and general populace. As youth, we are in contrary to the Bill and we encourage youth to attend the hearing sessions which are underway so that our voices can be heard,” said Munhangu.
Zimbabwe Democracy Institute (ZDI) research director Patience Sibanda bemoaned lack of information in citizens regarding the bill and said it is meant to shrink the democratic space and clampdown on CSOs.
“Parliament has not done enough to educate citizens on the PVO bill. Are the citizens aware of what it entails or its being forced on them? The bill will limit operations of CSOs particularly those operating as watchdogs and advocating for a just and fair Zimbabwe. They are limited to being guard dogs. The bill undermines democracy and imposes unfair restrictions,” said Sibanda.
Recently, parliament went on a nationwide consultative process in form of public hearings on the Bill.

Fredrick Moyo

Media practitioners in Masvingo have expressed scepticism about the Private Voluntary Organisation (PVO) Amendment Bill saying the bill’s vagueness may present problems to free expression of ideas in the long run.
Speaking during a Caucus discussion organised by the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA), media academic Dr Last Alfandika said government is not being fair in terms of advocating for democracy and the bill has hidden issues that will be a challenge to some organisations that support media operations as this will kill the energy media has had over the past years.
“Government is not being fair because if we talk in terms of democracy, the bill is not actually going to star for democracy because it is dealing with the PVOs yet the media are not part and parcel of the PVOs, they are a business which is owned and controlled.
“One issue that is hidden is that the bill is going to create challenges for organisations which support the media and those organisations which fall under the Media Alliance of Zimbabwe are going to be stifled and controlled in such a manner that they will not be able to support journalism in Zimbabwe which means issues of media reforms and media activism are not going to be pushed with the vitality we have seen in the past years and that is the major issue which is going to happen to the media if the bill passes to be a law,” said Dr Alfandika.
He also added that the bill is vague as it does not fully state how the PVOs are not supposed to impede in politics whereas the PVOs work directly with politics and it is hard to separate the two.
“The other issue is that the bill itself is vague especially when they are saying the PVOs are not supposed to interfere with politics, PVOs work with politics directly so if we are saying they are not supposed to interfere with politics what are we saying? Are we saying that people are not supposed to be taught politics? Politics bring in democracy, so if they are not supposed to interfere with politics, which politics?
“So let the bill be clear and say is it international politics, at what level, what they mean by interfering. These issues need to be ironed for the media to safeguard the gains that we have had for the past years,” added Alfandika.
Trust Rukwava a journalist in Masvingo said the PVO Bill limits the activities of organisations that represent journalists and it gives much power to the minister in charge.
“The bill limits the activities of organisations which represent journalists and concentrates too much power on one person that is the minister. Its definition of political involvement is vague since one who represents the interests of journalists as the fourth estate can be easily classified as a political activist and it also reduces sources of revenue for media since the same PVOs whose activities want to be trimmed, are also major advertisers in the media.
“In short it is more retrogressive than progressive. It is high on diagnosis but low on prescription. It is a give and take situation in which the same freedoms which have been given through the repealing of draconian laws which governed the activities of the media can be smuggled back just through the use of controversial clauses and jargon within the bill,” said Rukwava.
MISA Zimbabwe Masvingo Advocacy Committee chairperson Passmore Kuzipa said the bill has some positives and negatives and much noise should be done on the negative impacts the bill has.
“The bill has both negatives and positives and we need to make noise on the negative so that they are corrected before the bill is passed into law. One major concern is that there is too much power given to the minister responsible to decide or judge and instead of giving too much power to the minister the bill should use the normal court procedures. The bill must not be vague, it should be very clear what they mean when they are saying involvement in politics. It should be clear in terms of defining the involvement they are relating to when they say political involvement rather than leaving it as it is because it becomes vulnerable to abuse especially by political figures,” said Kuzipa.
The government gazetted the PVO Bill on November 5 2021, stating that the bill seeks to help the country comply with recommendations made by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), to streamline administrative procedures and allow for the efficient regulation and administration of PVOs and also to prevent PVOs from undertaking terrorism.

Thabiso Nxumalo

The only public hearing for the Private Voluntary Organizations (PVO) Amendment Bill for Masvingo province ended prematurely on March 1 after violence erupted between some participants who began to fight, accusing each other of having sponsored views on the contentious bill.
The Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Public Services, Labour and Social Welfare had to abandon the venue as attendants started fighting during the hearing, clashing over split views along political ideologies.
Though a mixed bag of views, most attendants raised a NO vote to the bill and the few that consented to the bill were considered sell-outs thereby sparking a squabble within the group.
Before being pulled aside by security for being partisan, one participant who out rightly claimed to be from the Douglas Mwonzora-led MDC-Alliance said the bill was good for him and likened the bill to a house-keeping measure.
“I am an MDC-Alliance supporter and as such I see the bill as a general housekeeping precaution. No one can just come to our household and start operating without making themselves and their intentions known to us and in that spirit, we do not want a case whereby we groom terrorists in our own backyard,” said the participant.
One Gutu United Residents and Rate Payers Association(GURRPA) member said Zimbabwe as a nation is not at a stage where it can sustain itself and as such must give well-wishers in the form of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) a comfortable space to operate in-order to complement government efforts.
“We as a nation cannot sustain ourselves without any help from these NGOs, so as such. I do not know why they should be given a tough time in trying to assist us survive,” said the member.
Gutu resident, Tatenda Zambara said if PVOs are genuinely seeking to help the public without any affiliations, there is no need for panic because this is just a measure to monitor and not to block them.
“Why are PVOs running amok and crying foul because this Bill just serves to monitor the sector and not to obliterate them?
“If we leave them be without monitoring, we risk having terrorist groups that are funded right below our noses. This is just for national security and besides every house has their own rules and this is our rule as a nation, even super powers like the United States of America have such laws that govern PVOs,” said Zambara.
Women Coalition of Zimbabwe (WCoZ) Masvingo Chapter chairperson Joyce Mhungu said the Bill is not citizen friendly and hearings should have been held in both rural and urban setups in Masvingo.
“For full effectiveness, these hearings should have covered both the rural and urban populace and a lot of pre-emptive knowledge should have been shared to the public before these hearings because most of the participants showed lack of knowledge about the bill,” said Mhungu.
With participants sharing a cocktail of views on the bill and affiliating them with their political parties stand points, a fight broke out as Tatenda Zambara said amidst the crowd were youths bussed and bought by HEAL Zimbabwe to come and cause commotion and voting NO against the Bill.
“There are NGOs that are not for development in the country and as we speak, they sent some youths present today to come and disrupt this meeting.
“They have been sent by organizations such as HEAL Zimbabwe, so to that regard I wish that this bill will sail through parliament,” said Zambara.