Zimbabwe set to pass law that will 'muzzle civil society,' experts warn

A two-hectare community garden in Sizinda, a high-density suburb in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second-largest city, enables Zamile Ajiti to feed and send her five children to school. With support from Australian philanthropic organizations Sally Foundation’s Global Development Group and Direct Aid Program, 180 poor households, including Ajiti’s, grow a range of vegetables for their own consumption and sale. “It has improved my life,” she said in an interview with Devex. “I am able to meet my children’s school needs like their bus fare to and from school.” But the project and Ajiti’s livelihood may be in jeopardy. Local civil society organizations fear that international aid to the country could wane if President Emmerson Mnangagwa passes amendments to the Private Voluntary Organizations Act, which they say are a ploy to suppress civil society. The PVO Amendment Bill, which was approved by Parliament and awaits the president’s assent, prohibits PVOs from political involvement, gives the newly established Office of the Registrar of PVOs the power to penalize noncompliant organizations, and empowers the registrar to collect registration fees from all PVOs. United Nations experts warned that the amendments will give the registrar disproportionate and discretionary powers including the ability to consider, grant, or reject the registration of PVOs, with little to no judicial recourse against such decisions. “The bill’s requirements would also immediately render existing organisations, operating lawfully as trusts and associations, illegal,” the experts said in a statement. The role of NGOs A research report found that NGOs in Zimbabwe have “played a critical role in bridging the huge financing gap in the critical sectors of the economy such as social protection, education, health, water and sanitation among others.” During the period January-September 2021, Zimbabwe received development assistance amounting to $647.8 million. NGOs are the third biggest earners of foreign currency in the country after export proceeds and diaspora remittances. Foreign currency receipts from NGOs rose by 50.5% from $ 647.78 million in 2020 to $975.16 million in 2021. “This foreign currency is critical in sustaining the foreign currency auction system. Any disruptions in the activities of NGOs through legal and/or non-legal means could result in the country losing out massively,” the report, released in March 2022, warned. “If the president signs this bill into law, he will be confirming Zimbabwe as a pariah state that is responsible for unspeakable human rights violations and a denier of democratic freedoms.” --— Effie Ncube, Bulawayo-based independent political analyst NGOs operating in the country also employ 1.2% of the total employed, translating to 17,643 formal jobs in a country with an estimated 76% informal employment. Meaning the government could lose substantial sums in potential tax revenue as well, the report states. Effie Ncube, a Bulawayo-based independent political analyst said “The domino effect across the economy is going to be huge.” Prominent lawyer and the leader of MDC-T, the country’s largest opposition party, Douglas Mwonzora said the PVO Amendment Bill, if approved, would curb the freedom of non-state actors. “Civil society speaks truth to power and it’s one of the natural checks and balances in any country. So, curbing this through the PVO Bill is trying to muzzle civil society and is trying to run away from accountability,” Mwonzora said. Ncube added that NGOs play a critical role in spotlighting misgovernment, corruption, and human rights violations thus enactment of the law could infringe on those roles. “If the president signs this bill into law, he will be confirming Zimbabwe as a pariah state that is responsible for unspeakable human rights violations and a denier of democratic freedoms,” he said. Enough oversight Mwonzora said not all NGOs are political, further noting that some were purely philanthropic so should not be curtailed. If any of them use resources for purposes other than those they were supposed to, there are enough laws to punish them, he said. Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum, a coalition of 22 human rights NGOs, said the current PVO Act provides a clear regulatory framework for CSOs, rendering the amendment bill unnecessary. “That legal framework is clear, everyone knows it, CSOs know it, the government knows it, the courts know it, the donors know it, there is no confusion,” Musa Kika, executive director of the consortium said. “We also have existing laws that regulate any misconduct or illegalities that NGOs do. For example, if an NGO is involved in money laundering, we already have an act that regulates money laundering.” He said that there was no threat of terrorism in Zimbabwe and no NGOs or their workers have been found guilty of financial crimes. “The real reason is to make sure that NGOs don’t do their work to hold the government to account, exposing the illegalities that are happening, exposing corruption, exposing abuse of power, exposing human rights violations,” he said. The 2023 national budget forecasts about $353 million in development assistance, a drastic fall from the traditional average of $1 billion yearly. “What more if the bill becomes a law?” quizzed Kika. Responding to questions from Devex, European Union ambassador to Harare, Jobst von Kirchmann said Zimbabwe is a sovereign country and thus the bloc does not interfere in its legislative processes but the EU has discussed its concerns about the law's possible impact on civic space, developmental cooperation, and international processes with the government. "We are aware that President Mnangagwa recently met civil society representatives for an exchange on several topics including this bill. It is thus premature to evaluate its impact on our development cooperation even if a large part of our funding goes directly or indirectly through NGOs," he said. Curbing terrorism Speaking in Parliament just before the bill’s approval on February 1, 2023, Justice Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi said the government acknowledges the role of PVOs in feeding, providing education and health services to the less privileged. But the Financial Action Task Force, a France-based money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog, had alerted authorities that some charities are being used to channel funds to terrorists and launder ill-gotten wealth. Government officials say some non-governmental organizations are also being used as conduits for foreign funding of local opposition parties which contravenes the Political Parties (Finance) Act. In his column in the government-controlled newspaper, The Sunday Mail, on February 19, 2023, Mnangagwa said some NGOs are operating beyond their mandate by abusing funds and siding with the opposition against his government. Genuine ones, he said, “have nothing to fear.” The total number of NGOs operating in the country is not accurately known, but some reports claim there are more than 1,000, which the president said is “the largest number in so small a country.” Mnangagwa's ZANU-PF party has been in power since Zimbabwe attained independence from Britain in 1980. It faced stiff opposition from the then-united Movement for Democratic Change between 2000 and 2008. However, frequent splits in the MDC and the death of its founding president, Morgan Tsvangirai, in 2018 have weakened the opposition. Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Minister Paul Mavima, who administers the PVO Act, told Devex that contrary to the general view in the NGO sector, the government is the main funder of social programs locally. In education, for example, the government contributes $1.5 billion and parents another $1.5 billion while international organizations like the U.N. and UNICEF provide between $50 million and $60 million yearly, he said. “It’s a drop in the ocean and that is across all sectors,” he said. He claimed that NGOs prioritize high salaries and top-of-the-range cars for their workers, with little done to positively impact communities. The U.S. and EU, he added, have laws regulating PVOs in their jurisdictions. “What we did with that amendment bill was to make sure that we know where the resources are being taken to and where they are coming from,” he said.