from MARCUS MUSHONGA in Harare, Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe Bureau
HARARE, (CAJ News) – ZIMBABWE can now deregister, prosecute and seize assets of nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) deemed to be acting in a politically partisan manner.
This follows the signing of the Private Voluntary Organisations Amendment Act by President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
The signing, on the eve of the country’s 45th independence anniversary, is seen as curtailing the rights to freedom of association and expression
Critics forecast the law will severely restrict civic space for groups that are fighting political repression in the Southern African country.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Zimbabwean authorities have long used domestic law as an instrument of repression, and this new law would allow them to target civil groups
Idriss Ali Nassah, senior Africa researcher at HRW, said, “Nongovernmental organisations cannot freely exercise their rights to free expression and other democratic liberties when their very existence is under threat.”
The new law allows the government to cancel the registration of organisations with little or no recourse to judicial review.
Violations of the law could result in criminal prosecution, with penalties ranging from heavy fines to imprisonment.
The government claimed the law was needed to curb groups from financing terrorism and money laundering, and to comply with the recommendations of Zimbabwe’s Financial Action Task Force
Domestic and international human rights and civil society organisations have decried the law.
Zimbabwe celebrates independence from Britain on Friday, amid economic and political problems.
The Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) has been in power through.
Mnangagwa (82) has been in office since 2017 when the military pressured Robert Mugabe (now late) to step down.
– CAJ News