#PFUMVUDZA
The PVO Amendment Bill potentially criminalises
NGO work and human rights defending.
The PVO Amendment Bill, seeks to
limit, strictly regulate and interfere
in the work of non-governmental
organisations, whose vibrancy is
critical in keeping checks and
balances on government as well as
complementing development work.
Among other issues, the PVO
Amendment Bill will reconfigure
the meaning of a Private Voluntary
Organisation (PVO) to include
currently not applicable
organisations such as trusts and
common law universitas.
According to an analysis of the Bill
by the Southern Africa Human
Rights Defenders Network,
(SAHRDN), these organizations
will now be subject to reregistration and to broad control
and regulation by the Board and
the Minister.
According to SAHRDN, the Bill
allows the Minister to make
application to the High Court to
appoint one or more persons as
trustees to run the affairs of an
organization.
What are the implications?
According to the SAHRDN, the PVO
Amendment Bill poses a significant
risk to civic space in Zimbabwe. It
gives too much power to the
Executive to control and interfere
with the work of NGOs. It increases
the surveillance and monitoring of
NGOs and HRDs. It potentially
criminalises NGO work and human
rights defending.
The role of civil society and NGOs
It must be noted that a vibrant civil
society can bring new information
to decision-makers, be it through
research, through close contacts
with particular populations, or
through bringing opinions that are
born neither in the state nor in the
private sector.
Civil society institutions are an
important source of information
for both citizens and government.
They monitor government policies
and actions and empower citizens
to hold government accountable.
They engage in advocacy and offer
alternative policies for
government, the private sector,
and other institutions.
There is a significant number of
organisations that focus on key
population groups such as women,
youth persons with disabilities,
and other marginalized groups and
there is a risk of reversing the
gains made so far in making these
key population groups to be the
centre of the country’s national
development agenda.
There are so many organisations
that are positively contributing to
livelihoods of communities and
highlighting key issues on the
delivery of socio-cultural rights,
policy formulation and public
service delivery. These
organisations work hand in glove
with local and central government
at all levels and the Bill will not
only negatively affect the
operations of these institutions,
but it will affect the local and
central government's capacity to
deliver on its mandate and
negatively impact the lives of
ordinary citizens.
In the health and education
sectors, non-governmental
organisations complement the
work of government and a recent
example was the COVID-19
disaster, during which most of the
non governmental organisations
pulled resources to fill the gap left
by government by providing
communities with information,
PPE, and other health and
education needs at a time when
government was falling far short in
responding adequately to the
pandemic.
OUR KEY ASKS
We join other non- governmental
and pro-democracy groups in
calling for government to rethink
the PVO Amendment Bill because
while it may have political benefits
to the ruling party, it has
implications on the livelihoods of
people and the Bill is a danger to
the progress Zimbabwe may have
made in the area of
Constitutionalism, democracy,
human rights and good
governance.