Chronicle Editor
Farirai Machivenyika, Harare Bureau
THE Private Voluntary Organisations Amendment Bill was crafted to, among other things, deal with organisations that register as trusts to circumvent scrutiny that comes through registering as a PVO, Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi has said.
Addressing a meeting between Government and Civil Society Organisations in Harare yesterday, Minister Ziyambi said regulation of CSOs was not unique to Zimbabwe and is not meant to punish NGOs, but provide a regulatory framework to enable them to conduct their activities freely without any hindrances.
The meeting was meant to discuss the PVO Amendment Bill that is currently before Parliament.
The Bill was crafted to address governance issues of CSOs, including preventing them from being used as conduits to finance terrorism and other illicit activities and penalise those that stray from their mandates to dabble in politics.
The initial amendments were instituted following recommendations from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an inter-governmental organisation meant to curb money laundering, terrorism financing and other illicit financial flows.
Minister Ziyambi said the Government had taken advantage of FATF recommendations to address gaps that were in the country’s laws.
“We are Government and we need to secure public funds, if you go out there and raise funds, you must not abuse that and we put it (the requirement to register as a PVO) in there to regulate that.
“We have somebody who is running away from being accountable under the PVO Act and goes to register a trust and we are saying if you want to do this activity (charitable work), you satisfy the requirement of being under the PVO Act.
“Why do you then want to register as a trust?” Minister Ziyambi asked.
“We have noticed a proliferation of people who register trusts as a form of business to say, I register a trust and call it Ziyambi Trust, and go begging for money and there is no accountability for that money, and we said those people must register as PVOs.”
Minister Ziyambi also said there was nothing amiss with the requirement that the registrar of CSOs encourages organisations doing similar work to co-ordinate their activities, as this was meant to prevent wasting resources.
CSOs have raised concern that the Bill, if enacted into law, would infringe on their right to freedom of association as enshrined in the Constitution.
Minister Ziyambi agreed with recommendations from the CSOs that there was a need to provide a transitional period, possibly up to 12 months, for organisations doing charitable work to register as PVOs if they had been previously registered as trusts.
He also agreed to recommendations that the registrar of CSOs be given a timeline to respond to applications for registration, while a clear mechanism for appeals is laid out, if the Registrar does not respond to the application within set timelines.
Speaking in an interview after the meeting, Minister Ziyambi said regulation of CSOs was not unique to Zimbabwe.
“The majority of countries have an Act that deals with the regulation of the NGO sector, we are not the only ones. We do it also to protect those individuals that donate to those charitable organisations. It is something that is done globally, in most jurisdictions.
“I am absolutely happy with the deliberations we had today (yesterday), it was robust and we managed to learn a few things and we are going to amend the Bill in its current structure because we have noticed that there are issues that were not consistent, but I believe that the interaction allowed the NGO sector to appreciate where the Government is coming from.
“I believe that now when they go back, they will understand that the Bill is not about punishing the NGO sector, but just a regulatory framework to do their work freely and without any hindrances,” Minister Ziyambi said.
A representative of CSOs, Mr Blessing Nyamaropa, said as CSOs, they were committed to work with Government.
“Our wish, as CSOs, is a conducive environment to work and complement Government’s efforts in all facets of life, be it development, governance issues, humanitarian, human rights and all other sectors,” he said.
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