The Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Public Service is
currently gathering views on the Bill viewed to be oppressive as its provisions
will effectively eliminate CSOs involved in promoting and defending human
rights in the country.
Yesterday, public hearings on the Bill were held in
Highfield (Harare), Guruve and Mutare.
They will also be held in other provinces in the country.
In Highfield, Zanu PF activists dominated the event and
disrupted the public hearings.
In a statement yesterday, Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition (CiZC) said the disruptions were likely to
compromise citizens’ participation in the public hearings.
“We deplore the violent nature of the Zanu PF activists and
implore the ruling party to exercise tolerance of divergent views. We reiterate that amendments to the PVO Act
are part of the efforts to close the democratic space in Zimbabwe and citizens
must unite in rejecting these amendments which will curtail fundamental freedoms
and entrench authoritarian rule,” the CiZC statement read.
Efforts to get a comment from Zanu PF spokesperson Chris
Mutsvangwa were fruitless. Zanu PF
commissar Mike Bimha said he could not comment on the issue as he was in a
meeting.
Some of the views aired before the disruptions included
that the Bill gazetted in November 2021 should not give the government powers
to interfere in operations of CSOs.
A Highfield resident said:
“Ministers have a lot of things that they can focus on and, therefore,
must not interfere in operations of CSOs.
They should let NGOs operate freely as they assist the poor with fees
payment, food assistance and also assist people with disabilities.”
Another resident said NGOs have been coming up with
youth-friendly projects to assist the youth.
In Guruve, a resident said operations of NGOs should be
scrutinised as they used to give food aid in bags with notes encouraging people
to vote for a certain political party.
Another Guruve resident said stakeholders should be given
enough time to scrutinise the Bill as it was not unpacked to the public.
The European Union recently said the PVO Amendment Bill was
one of the reasons sanctions on Zimbabwe were renewed last month. Newsday
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