Leaders of non-governmental organisations that fund political parties or candidates will face up to a year in prison if the Private Voluntary Organisation Amendment Bill gazetted last Friday is passed into law.
The amendment seeks to add to section 10 of the principal
Act by the insertion of a new paragraph that bars any private voluntary
organisation from supporting or opposing any political party or candidate in a
presidential, parliamentary or local government election.
Any private voluntary organisation violating this provision
shall be guilty of an offence and liable to a fine of level twelve or to
imprisonment for a period not exceeding one year, or both such fine or such
imprisonment.
The penalty also extends to foreign organisations that
solicit funds for political parties in breach of the Political Parties Finance
Act.
One major need for the amendment is to fulfil Zimbabwe’s
obligations under international law to prevent terrorist organisations misusing
non-profit organisations to launder money or move money around.
The other need arises from the fact that some NGOs abandon
their mandates by pursuing a political agenda in support of regime change. Some
of the NGOs have endorsed opposition parties and go on to distribute food that
has political signs of the political parties they would have chosen to side
with.
Other NGOs have seconded candidates for council,
parliamentary and presidential elections, in exchange for funding.
Apart from barring NGOs from pursuing political lobbying,
the Bill’s Memorandum says the amendments are also being made in order to
comply with the Financial Action Taskforce recommendations made to Zimbabwe.
It has also become necessary to streamline administrative
procedures for private voluntary organisations to allow for efficient
regulation and registration.
The Taskforce is an intergovernmental organisation founded
in 1989 on the initiative of the Group of 7 (G7) countries whose main objective
is to develop policies to combat money laundering. Zimbabwe is a member.
Each member country is assessed periodically for compliance
with the policies and legislation on money laundering and financing of
terrorism.
Countries are assessed on two major criteria, which are
technical compliance and effectiveness.
Technical compliance is concerned with deficiencies related
to the country’s anti-money laundering and financing of terrorism legislation
while effectiveness is concerned with deficiencies which highlight practical
implementation challenges.
“This Bill seeks to comply with recommendations under technical
compliance raised under Zimbabwe’s mutual evaluation report,” reads part of the
Memorandum.
“As a result of the said deficiencies, Zimbabwe was placed
under a monitoring programme in October 2018 by FATF in order to ensure the
country aligns its laws on private voluntary organisation to recommendation 8
whose objective is to ensure that non-profit organisations are not misused by
terrorist organisations whether as a way for such terrorist organisations to
pose as legitimate entities; or to exploit legitimate entities as conduits for
terrorist financing, including for the purpose of escaping asset freezing
measures; or to conceal or obscure the clandestine diversion of funds intended
for legitimate purposes, but diverted for terrorist purposes, as such, there is
need to have clear laws that set out a framework that allows to prevent any
potential abuse in key sectors.” Herald
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