By Kudzai Chimhangwa
The Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) sector has increasingly become the target of a series of attacks by Mr Emmerson Mnangagwa’s regime, as the ruling party Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (ZANU PF) pulls all stops to shut down dissenting voices. The ruling party is in the final stages of promulgating draconian amendments to the Private Voluntary Organizations (PVO) Act, as Mnangagwa’s government is procedurally conducting public hearings on the proposed law.
However, these public hearings being conducted throughout the country have been disrupted by rowdy ZANU PF activists who have lashed out at any citizen who speaks out against the bill.
Supporters of the amendment argue that NGOs and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) are misusing donor funds by pushing a Western political agenda of regime change and advocating for values that run against Zimbabwean culture.
On the 16th of May, chaos erupted at Charles Austin Theatre in Masvingo, where PVO bill public hearings were taking place. Apparently, ZANU PF had mobilized hundreds of its supporters and activists to railroad a positive acceptance to the process. Several citizens were reportedly injured during the skirmishes over the contentious amendments.
Just as well on the 17th of May, ZANU PF supporters threatened the bill’s opponents with violence and disrupted a public hearing on the proposed law at Harare’s Ambassador Hotel leading to cancellation of the hearing. Ruling party activists chanted, “Dissenters should leave the country. We want our Bill.”
Similar disturbances were reported in Gweru and Chinhoyi, all designed to disrupt public participation in governance issues.
In 2023, NGOs reported surveillance missions by unidentified persons visiting and occasionally raiding NGO offices.
All this raises the simple yet convoluted question, why the uproar and concern by ZANU PF to railroad the proposed amendments?
Method to Madness…
Human rights, governance and democracy-oriented NGOs have always been a problem for ZANU PF over the years, as they systematically kept track of the regime’s excesses in cracking down on dissenting voices, and supported citizens to demand accountability. Not only have they educated citizens about the importance of constitutionally enshrined freedom of association and taking part in electoral processes over the years, but they have also enlightened the population about their rights and helped victims of political injustices in the courts.
However, Mnangagwa claims that the bill is necessary in order to ‘protect and defend the country’s sovereignty from destabilizing foreign interests.’ Zimbabwe is set to lose millions of US dollars in development funding should this law sail through. Already, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), which was the largest funder of legal projects supporting vulnerable women and children in Zimbabwe has reportedly pulled out of the country owing to this legislation.
As Mnangagwa’s government becomes more authoritarian, the obliteration of civic space, which disrupts the one-party state ideology, has become an important objective. The threat of civil unrest owing to ZANU PF elites’ mismanagement of the economy and crushing of free political expression has made the regime paranoid. So harsh is the law that it imposes criminal penalties of up to 10 years imprisonment, even for organizations carrying out legitimate activities.
Mnangagwa’s regime is infamous for using legally plausible routes in order to achieve its macabre objectives. Soon after the August 2023 elections, self-imposed political imposter Sengezo Tshabangu, won a legal mandate to recall opposition members of parliament, thanks to a captured judiciary and helped to hand over a two thirds majority to ZANU PF in parliament. NGOs and CSOs now remain the challenge to Mnangagwa’s creation of a one-party state, hence the need to push this PVO amendment.
It is not an bizarre presumption to note that Mnangagwa is desperate to push through with unconstitutional methods of power retention. The scrutiny, balance and checks which CSOs provide will effectively be eroded once the PVO amendment sees the light of day.
In pushing for this law, Mnangagwa’s government argues that it is following recommendations of the Financial Action Taskforce (FATF), a non-treaty inter-governmental body tasked with the promotion of measures to help combat money laundering and terrorist financing. Although the FATF removed Zimbabwe from the Enhanced Monitoring “grey list” of countries considered not to be in full compliance of Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) standards, Mnangagwa’s regime has ignored warnings on the repercussions of the law by at least four United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteurs. Furthermore, the bill appears to blanket all CSOs as high risk yet this was clearly not the intention of the FATF recommendations
ZANU PF has pounced on this scenario as cannon fodder to justify passing the law.
Of Constitutional Retrogression
The proposed law excessively interferes with the operations of NGOs and CSOs. Among many draconian provisions inherent in the bill, the amendment appropriates powers to the responsible minister to make an application to the High Court, in order to appoint people of his or her own choice as trustees to run the affairs of a designated PVO.
The amendment also gives disproportionate and unrestricted powers to the newly established Office of the Registrar of PVOs, including the ability to consider, grant or reject the registration of PVOs, with little to no legal recourse against such decisions.
Section 58 of Zimbabwe’s constitution provides for freedom of assembly and association while section 61 provides for freedom of expression and freedom of the media. With the proposed law being hurriedly pushed through, Zimbabwe’s repressive behavior fits into a category of countries undergoing constitutional retrogression.
International law experts Tom Ginsberg and Aziz Huq put it that constitutional retrogression describes a more incremental but ultimately substantial decay in three basic predicates of democracy, in particular; competitive elections; liberal rights to speech and association; and the rule of law.
They further argue that leaders intent on engineering retrogression typically use some combination of mechanisms ranging from constitutional amendments to remove limits to executive terms, and the degradation of a shared public sphere through intimidating the media and civil society, among others.
For ZANU PF, this is no longer a considerable measure of bluff, but a high stakes game of political survival.
