In a letter to the NGO Forum chairperson dated February 15,
2022, Pisa stated that all NGOs that would not have paid registration fees by
February 28, 2022, would be banned from operating.
He then set renewal registration fees at US$100 and US$200
for new registrants.
“Please be advised that all NGOs operating in the district
should have registered with the council by February 28, 2022. Failure to
register the respective NGOs should cease operations,” Pisa’s letter read.
“The renewal fees for NGOs still stands at US$100 and new
registration at US$200.”
The NGOs, through their lawyers from the Zimbabwe Lawyers
for Human Rights (ZLHR), said they would challenge the ban.
“It appears that the Zimbabwean authorities are remaining
intransigent, with Makoni Rural District CEO Edward Pisa writing a letter to
the NGO Forum in Makoni district telling it that those NGOs, which fail to
register with the local authority by today, should cease operations,” the ZLHR
said yesterday.
“Our lawyer Taurai Khupe is assisting the NGOs in Makoni to
challenge this purported ban. This purported ban of NGOs in Makoni comes less
than six months after High Court judge Justice (Esther) Muremba ordered the
government to stop interfering with, or stopping the operations of NGOs.”
In July last year, Harare metropolitan provincial secretary
Tafadzwa Muguti banned all NGOs and private voluntary organisations, which
defied a directive to report to him, from operating.
The High Court, however, ordered government to stop
interfering with the operations of NGOs, trusts, civic society organisations
and faith-based organisations in a court challenge against Muguti’s directive.
Government has put in place various measures, including
crafting laws to clamp down on NGOs that it accuses of meddling in politics.Newsday
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