THE controversial Private Voluntary Organisations Amendment Bill (PVO Bill) which seeks to give government more power to regulate activities of Non-Governmental Organisations and Trusts is tantamount to economic sabotage given amounts of money that come through channels authorities are trying to throttle for political reasons.
MOSES MATENGA
In his monetary policy statement yesterday, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor John Mangudya (pictured) showed the magnitude and importance of the money coming into the economy through NGOs and international organisations.
“As at 30 June 2022, total international remittances amounted to US$1.372 billion, an increase of 23% from the US$1.113 billion recorded during the same period in 2021,” Mangudya said.
“Of the total amount, diaspora remittances amounted to USD797 million, a 23% increase from US$650 million received during the same period in 2021. International remittances received through the normal banking system on behalf of International Organisations amounted to US$575 million, an increase of 24% from US$463 million recorded during the same period in 2021.”
International remittances comprise transfers by Zimbabweans in the diaspora and international organisations.
The Bill was published in November last year and provoked a storm of protest from civil society and communities.
Veritas, an organisation of lawyers which monitors legislative processes, analysed the Bill and found it to be “unconstitutional, inimical to freedom of association, ill-conceived and badly drafted”.
However, the Bill went through its first reading in the Zanu PF-dominated National Assembly and was passed as constitutional by the Parliamentary Legal Committee. It is currently undergoing its Second Reading in the Assembly.
Recently, on 8 June, the Minister of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare published a long list of amendments he proposes to put forward during the Bill’s committee stage.
The amendments will delete provisions in the Bill which would have allowed the Registrar of PVOs to require trustees of any trust either to forswear their right to collect funds for charitable purposes or to register their trust as a PVO.
In place of these provisions, however, the amendments will insert a new section 6 in the PVO Act which will:
- require any trust that collects funds for charitable purposes to register under the Act;
- prohibit anyone from collecting funds from the public except in accordance with the Act – which means that only registered PVOs will be allowed to do so;
- debar unregistered PVOs from receiving funds from the State,
- permit the Registrar to require any trust to get itself registered as a PVO, and
- make trustees and their trusts jointly liable to criminal penalties for failure to comply with the new section.
While the new provisions are clearer than the vague ones they replace, they will give the registrar – that is government – greater power to control trusts.
Veritas says the new provisions are largely unconstitutional because they limit freedom of association and any limitations on that freedom must not only be fair, reasonable and justifiable, they must also be necessary in a democratic society and, in addition, they must meet two further tests:
- they must not impose greater restrictions on freedom of association than are necessary to achieve their purpose, and
- there must be no other less restrictive means of achieving the purpose of the limitations.
The new provisions cannot be said to meet these tests.
Earlier warnings had shown that the ill-conceived Bill could cost Zimbabwe close to US$800 million in development funding this year – with devastating social and economic consequences – if the government persists with its repressive legislative agenda.
A report, titled Punching Holes To A Fragile Economy?, compiled by Prosper Chitambara, Clinton Musonza and Phillan Zamchiya, had warned the proposed law will have a far-reaching negative impact and implications not just for civil society organisations, but also for government development programmes and the poor who rely on aid for survival and access to critical social services.
“NGOs have also 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,” the report says.
“For instance, according to the 2022 national budget statement, during the period January to September 2021, the country received development assistance amounting to US$647.8 million, of which US$401.9 million was from bilateral partners and US$245.9 million from multilateral partners.
“A further US$202.4 million in development assistance is projected during the fourth quarter of 2021, giving cumulative receipts of US$850.2 million for the year.
“In 2022, support from the development partners is projected at US$761.5 million, broken down as US$274.3 million and US$487.2 million from multilateral and bilateral partners, respectively. Importantly, a lot of the gains that have been registered in key health and social indicators have been on account of the partnership between the government and NGOs.”
