NGOs Drag Muguti To Court Over Ban

By Lloyd Takawira

The Zimbabwe Human Rights Forum (ZimHRNGOForum) and the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition have filed an urgent high court application challenging the ban on non non governmmental organizations by Harare Metropolitan Administrator, Tafadzwa Muguti.


In a statement, the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights said that through human rights lawyer Mr Tonderai Batasara, they have filed an urgent chamber application on behalf of @ZimHRNGOForum & @crisiscoalition.

“We have filed urgent application challenging the arbitrary actions by Harare Provincial Development Coordinator Tafadzwa Muguti purporting to ban NGOs in Harare,” ZLHR said in a statement.

ZLHR further said that they seek to interdict Muguti for suspending the operations of Non Governmmental Organizations.

“In the application, we have asked the High Court to interdict anyone from enforcing, interfering, suspending or stopping operations of NGOs, Trusts, CSOs & Faith-Based Organisations or in any way acting on the contents of the press statement issued on 29 July by Muguti.”

This week in a statement, Muguti gave forty NGOs the greenlight to continue operating whilst stating that those that failed to comply with his directive had ceased to operate.

“The enlisted NGOs have been permitted to conduct their operations in within Harare Metropolitan Province subject to the complying with the outlined procedures.

“Those that failed to comply with the request on the 30th of June 2021 shall with immediate effect be stopped by the law enforcement from conducting any operations whatsoever until they fully comply with the policy,” reads part of the statement.

Human rights activists have been condemning Mr Muguti’s actions as dictatorial and an overstep of his mandate.

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