MUTARE Civil society here has urged President Robert Mugabe and Zanu (PF) to immediately repeal repressive laws and lift all restrictions on the media to facilitate political transition.A meeting last week brought together about 20 associations and civic organisations in Zimbabwe to review the needs of Zimbabwe during its transition, identify priorities for practical help and support and develop new programmes of action to enhance the transition.
They said lifting media restrictions and repealing all repressive laws could be done immediately to enhance free expression and free flow of information, particularly in the current process of writing a new constitution.
Archbold Mutanga from Zimrights said the civil society organisations, human rights groups and local and international NGOs had a wealth of experience drawn from former trouble spots like Rwanda, Sierra Leone and other troubled African states which could be valuable to Zimbabwe as its people seek to achieve reconciliation and healing after a period of turmoil.
Payne Morris from International Peace Building Project (IPBP) said although Mugabe had pulled Zimbabwe out of the Commonwealth in 2003, its people had always remained part of that international grouping and human rights groups had thought it prudent to re-engage with civil society and help wherever possible to enhance the transitional process.
There is no competition going on between SADC, AU and now the Commonwealth to see who can engage Zimbabwe better, said Morris in response to a question whether the Commonwealth could do anything that SADC had failed to achieve in Zimbabwe.
As international organisations our idea is to help innocent Zimbabweans. We want to use every tool in bag to ensure a return to the rule of law, added Morris.
Petros Makichi from the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) they were unhappy that instead of pushing for the repeal of all draconian laws, which impinge on basic rights and press freedoms, Mugabe was failing to appoint a commission to regulate the media.
The participants said there was no guarantee that the commission would fare any better than the previous one led by media hangman and Zanu (PF) sympathizer, Tafataona Mahoso, which had destroyed the independent press.
Martin Gray, a media consultant in South Africa who also attended the meeting, said: The pre-2000 environment in Zimbabwe in which the media was not regulated and citizens were allowed to set up their newspapers without hindrance is what Zimbabwe desperately needs now, said Gray.
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