HARARE A battery of repressive laws and attacks against non-governmental organisation (NGO) workers over the past decade severely restricted civic society in Zimbabwe with several groups forced to scale down operations or quit the country altogether, NGOs said last week. (Pictured: Jestina Mukoko The Zimbabwe Peace Project director was last year kidThe National Association of NGOs or NANGO said in new report last Wednesday that that civil society organizations faced a constant security threat for the past 10 years as calls for democracy were met with socio-economic and targeted political violence and restrictive laws against the groups or their workers.
The past decade has seen increased and open harassment of CSOs (civil society organisations) and their members as calls for democracy were met with socio-economic and political violence, NANGO chief executive Cephas Zinhumwe said releasing the report.
Through targeted violence and restrictive legislation such as the Public Order and Security Act, Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, Interception of Communication Act and the Private Voluntary Organisation Act, among others, civil society operating space has been shrunk by the day, added Zinhumwe.
The NANGO represents the largest number of civil society organisations working in Zimbabwe.
The group said in the report titled Civil society security scoping said that all NGOs have for the past decade lived in constant fear and insecurity leading to self-censorship, paralysis of programmes, muzzling of free flow of information, brain drain and demobilisation.
The level of risk and insecurity, the study said, varied from sector to sector and depended on the nature of programmes and activities of a particular organisation and individuals within an organisation.
The report said things came to a head in June 2008 when President Robert Mugabes government accused NGOs of working to topple it and banned all civic society groups from conducting fieldwork.
The ban was interpreted differently with some CSOs (NGOs) closing shop after receiving the ban or being forced to close by Zanu (PF) youths and war veterans, the report reads in part.
The political impasse that followed last years inconclusive elections only helped exacerbate the situation for NGOs as attacks and arrests were stepped up against civil society workers some of who were kidnapped and allegedly tortured by state security agents, the report said.
It said: Activists were abducted without trace in November and December 2008 only for the police who initially denied having them in custody to bring them to court in late December 2008. Among those abducted was human rights activist and director of the Zimbabwe Peace Project Jestina Mukoko.
In addition to repressive legislation and violence against personnel, civic society groups also faced immense difficulties accessing their funds that held by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe. This was after the RBZ ordered all NGOs to deposit all hard cash donations with it to enable better monitoring of the funds.
Unbeknown to them, the RBZ intended to put the money to some other use CSOs found themselves unable to access foreign currency for programmes. Zimbabwe also faced a cash crisis that resulted in the CSOs being unable to access local currency for programmes, the NANGO report said.
Post published in: Politics