Harare, September (New Ziana) – The Private Voluntary Organizations Amendment Bill, which received a non-adverse report from the Parliamentary Legal Committee, is among pieces of legislation the National Assembly is set to debate when it resumes sitting.

The PVO Act provides for the registration of PVOs and the regulations of donations that such organizations receive with a view to curbing money laundering and financing of terrorism while ensuring that the civil society organizations do not get involved in political lobbying.

The Bill has been fraught with controversy with the NGOs and opposition political outfits fiercely opposed to it on the grounds that it will negatively impact civic space and threaten the existence and operations of some of the civil society organizations.

Their hopes were raised when the government was forced to resubmit the current Bill after President Emmerson Mnangagwa refused to sign the PVO Amendment Bill in 2021, resulting in its subsequent lapse in August 2023.

Ahead of the parliamentary sitting, Legal think tank, Veritas, said the Parliamentary Legal Committee had issued a non-adverse report on the amendments made to the Bill in the Committee Stage and the whole house is due to consider the amendments after which the Bill will go to the Third Reading stage.

Also set to be debated is the Death Penalty Abolition Bill whose Second Reading is due to continue after the Assembly last debated the Bill on May 30, and the Administration of Estates Amendment Bill which had amendments made by the Senate on July 23.

The Second Reading of the Persons with Disabilities Bill is expected to continue while the Second Reading of the Parks and Wild Life Amendment Bill is expected to begin while annual reports from the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) will be considered together with reports on run-off and by-elections held in the country last year. Parliament will also discuss the ratification of the treaty on the SADC Protocol on Environmental Management for Sustainable Development of 2014 and continue debate on the motions by the Minister of Environment, Climate and Wild Life.

Motions on the National Assembly order paper include urging the government to start and intensify cancer awareness programmes and to provide modern cancer equipment at Parirenyatwa and Mpilo hospitals, combat piracy of intellectual property rights and to set up a compensation fund for people whose rights have been pirated and to pass a law prohibiting foreign entities from promoting LGBTQI+1 activities and condemning those activities.

The establishment of a parliamentary radio and television station for broadcasting parliamentary debates is also expected to come under the spotlight as is the provision of tax relief for businesses that invest in arts, sports and culture while the Registrar-General’s Office will be urged to conduct a mobile registration exercise to provide citizens with primary documents.

The August House is also expected to discuss a petition on measures to improve public transport and resume debate on the report of the Portfolio Committee on Defense, Home Affairs, Security Services and War Veterans’ Affairs, on a petition seeking reburial of liberation war heroes whose Bill is under the consideration of the Parliamentary Legal Committee and the Finance Bill 2024 to give effect to the Minister of Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion’s supplementary budget that was presented on September 12.

The Senate will be asked to approve Zimbabwe’s accession to the SADC Charter establishing the Women in Science, Engineering and Technology Organisation, annual reports of constitutional bodies that include the National Prosecuting Authority of Zimbabwe [NPAZ], Judicial Service Commission [JSC], Zimbabwe Electoral Commission [ZEC], and the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission [ZHRC] Motions to be dealt with by the Senate include human-wild life conflict, service delivery by local authorities, water shortages, particularly in Harare and Bulawayo, rehabilitation of mines and the participation of communities in profits from mining on their land, the provision of shunt devices in hospitals to treaty hydrocephalus and provision of birth certificates for people living in border areas.

New Ziana