A number of media reports have incorrectly stated that key legal statutes, such as the Interception of Communications Act, the National Security Council Act and the Procurement Act, were last week taken over by Robert Mugabe’s office as part of the run-up to elections next year.
But according to the legal watchdog group Veritas, these acts have been under Mugabe’s office since 2010, with only one recent change. The group said in its recent Bill Watch series that administration of the Radiation Protection Act has been removed from the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, and “this is the only change to the pre-existing situation.”
All the other Acts listed were assigned to the President’s Office from at least 2010, unilateral decisions that were contested by the MDC-T, but never followed up on.
Veritas meanwhile repeated its warnings from 2010 about the ‘undesirability’ of assigning these parliamentary acts to an unaccountable body like the President’s Office”
“Ministers are identifiable and answerable to Parliament. Bureaucrats and securocrats are not. This has grave implications for protection of privacy of communications and freedom of expression,” Veritas said. SW Radio Africa
Post published in: News