The Private Voluntary Organisations (PVO) Bill, according to ZAPU, is a calculated move by the Emmerson Mnangagwa-led government to demobilise civic society and capture non-state actors, who are the country’s symbol of independent thought.
The PVO Bill, which seeks to regulate and control private and voluntary organisations, known as Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) or Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) was passed by Parliament last week and now awaits scrutiny by the Senate before it goes to President Mnangagwa.
ZAPU leader, Sibangilizwe Nkomo, announced the party would launch a diplomatic offensive to oppose the PVO Bill and would rally Zimbabweans to do the same.
“Our history for fighting repressive laws dates back to when luminaries such as Benjamin Burombo and Masotsha Ndlovu led the formation of Southern Rhodesia African National Congress, National Democratic Party and ZAPU,” he said, noting these organisations and their leaders were inspired by unjust laws of the minority government so in 1980, Zimbabwe’s independence “was a promise” that the country would not use lawfare against its citizens.
However, the ZAPU leader regrets that the removal of former Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe in 2017 gave birth to “Mnangagwa’s robust, vicious, and tenacious dictatorship.”
“Dr Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo, Cde Jason Ziyaphapha Moyo, Dr Tichafa Sam Parirenyatwa, Cde Amon Jirira, James Chikerema, George Silundika and others, who were a product of these NGOs and CSOs must be turning in their graves seeing our black government assaulting on the rights of its citizens with reckless abandon,” he said.
Nkomo claimed Mnangagwa’s capture of Zimbabwe has been calculated as they have watched in “utter disbelief” when he “wrapped his fingers around the judiciary, resulting in a proliferation of political prisoners who are jailed without trial,” citing the imprisonment of opposition legislator Job Sikhala as an example.
“When Mnangagwa was done with the judiciary, he went for both the executive as well as the legislature through brazen bribery offering them amounts ranging from US$40 000 to US$500 000. Unsatisfied with complete state capture in his pursuit for a one party state, he has set his sights on capturing the last epoch of independent thought and representation, the CSOs,” Nkomo said.
According to the ZAPU leader, the PVO Bill demonstrates the government’s inconsistency in implementing the National Development Strategy (NDS) towards Vision 2030, which places human rights as the foundation for Zimbabwe’s approach to achieving development and peace, while local NGOs and CSOs who privately and voluntarily seek to supplement government efforts through their programmes are labelled enemies of the state.
“To the extent that a whole bill is looming over their continued operating independently yet the independence of civic society is of paramount importance in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),” he said.
“When our late President Joshua Nkomo took the Zimbabwean case to the United Nations in September 1960 he addressed the UN Committee on Colonisation and on March 23, 1963 he again addressed the Committee of 24 which was established to help countries like Zimbabwe to gain independence, this was in line with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights with the second article on the UN Human Rights Charter being the Right to Self Determination,” he said.
“It is on this basis that all the countries in the world were in solidarity with the Zimbabwean people’s cause for freedom. ZAPU and ZANU had support from Britain, America, Canada, the European Union member states, the Warsaw Pact, the Commonwealth countries, the Africa Union, and the Frontline States in furtherance of the UN Committee of 24 objectives. All these countries provided solidarity funds, scholarships, military training, and materials. Yet today, now that we are independent, regard these organisations and principals as enemies of the state.”
The ZAPU leader argued the Zanu PF government cannot promote SDGs while simultaneously reversing them through the PVO Act.
“It is very unfortunate that the Zanu-PF government seeks to advance its total disregard of Human Rights through various legislations like POSA, AIPPA, and the mooted Patriotic Act. This is a well-orchestrated plan towards their long-term goal of a One-Party-State Zimbabwe where only their voices, their choices, and power is retained,” Nkomo said, adding ZAPU has resisted this in the early 80s, and will continue resisting such.
“We know the effects of these unjust laws as we lost all our properties after we were labelled a terrorist organisation. Cdes Dumiso Dabengwa and Lookout Masuku were unfairly jailed under these unjust laws. As ZAPU we stand in solidarity with all CSOs, NGOs, and community-based organisations who have continued to hold the government accountable under extreme conditions with some facing death and imprisonment. We condemn all political parties in Parliament who, after being fettered with loans, see nor hear any evil about this satanic bill.”
