By Lerato Ndlovu
As the government is set on introducing the Private Voluntary Organisations amendment bill, a lot of questions on its effectiveness and impact have risen.
Is this bill a means to an end? But then again what end? Is it politically motivated? Is it good for the country’ s business environment? How will it affect Zimbabwe’s human rights situation? Ultimately what is its value to society at large? These are the questions arising among citizens trying to understand the motive behind the gazetted bill.
Bustop TV spoke to citizens who expressed concern over the PVO bill which will eventually block NGOs and civil society that have played a crucial role in their societies.
Laura Tsibo an entrepreneur described this bill as appalling and an insult to brains behind voluntary organisations..
She said: “This bill is a reflection of the government snatching away independence of bodies that further progressive causes, giving Ministers powers to change key players in an organisation will likely lead to disruptions in internal operations.
“If a Minister is not part of an organisations internal structure, they have no business meddling with an organisations governance.
“Letting a minister tell an organisation how to run and operate their affairs is tantamount to an organisation losing its independence and that is nothing short of dictatorship.”
Rodwell Bonzo a development practitioner added, “This proposed law has serious implications that would affect the work of PVOs, trusts, associations, and all organisations providing charitable services, as well as everyone who benefits from them.
“The amendments will violate important human rights and affect communities that depend on the work of these organisations and also yielding results will not be possible in the communities as such there is likely to be a resurge of poverty lines due to the economic crunch that the country is facing.
“ These NGOs have been doing a good job in ensuring that some communities are being well fed and their upkeep is maintained, simply because they would understand the politics and dynamics of the area they will be working on, now with this if this bill is passed, we are likely to see a number of organisations collapsing and some seizing operations and it will be a sad scenario for the people that the government calms to love and protect.”
Mildred De Souza a young farmer stated that, from the word go understanding the bill was a challenge , but reading and having debates on it opened her up to how the bill does not suit the interests of the people.
“I personally did not understand the bill when it was first being talked about, but through reading and discussions the bill does not seem to reflect on the interests of the people but the interest of the government.
“Debates are being held at street corners in the hoods with people talking about the end result that this bill will bring about, there is no good word to say about it, for everyone is worried since everything in life involves politics, there can never be any operation without politics in it.
“So in short it is basically the closing of the space for civil society and infringement of the right to association, and without such a right there is likely to be an introduction of more poverty in the country, without this politics thing there will most likely be no aid coming in the country, and that’s scary,” she said.
This article was produced with financial support of the Content Creators Network ZW.
