Terrorism? Or a cover for control? The Flip Side delves into Zimbabwe's controversial law which could shape the country's democracy.
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00:00The Zimbabwean government says some civil society organizations could be used to sponsor terrorism
00:06and engage in money laundering schemes. To stop that, it has passed a new law requiring
00:12non-governmental organizations or NGO to declare where their money comes from. But is there any
00:20proof? The phenomenon of illicit financial flaws has been as a result of the work and activities
00:29of politically exposed persons. There has never been a single prosecution for illicit financial
00:41flaws of any NGO leader, any member of the civil society since independence in 1980.
00:50The new law, known as the Private Voluntary Organization's Law, or the PVO Law, has sent
00:56shockwaves through Zimbabwe's civic sector.
00:59We are not going to register to a draconian piece of legislation because registering itself,
01:05it means that we are legitimizing an unjust law.
01:08So are Zimbabwean NGOs involved in terrorism financing? Or is this about something else?
01:16Welcome to the flip side.
01:18Last year, Zimbabwe took what they called a bold step to fight terrorism financing and
01:24money laundering. That resulted in a national report on anti-money laundering and counterterrorism
01:29financing. The report made several recommendations to the government.
01:34Now, under the new PVO law, the government has the power to 1. Scrutinize who owns an NGO.
01:412. Track all foreign funding. 3. Deregister organizations. 4. Seize their assets. And shut
01:51them down entirely. Already, the European Union has suspended its budget funding to Zimbabwe
01:57over this law, warning that it undermines freedoms of association and expression.
02:03So what does this mean for ordinary people?
02:06Recently, there has been, you know, some drastic measures that were done by the U.S. President
02:12Donald Trump, which then announced the departure of USID and any American government funded programs
02:21worldwide, and which our country was negatively impacted, in particular in the health sector,
02:28where much of our funding was coming from USID. And now the announcement by the EU
02:35ambassador on their, you know, cancellation of the programs on Zimbabwe is going to further
02:43cause devastating effects, you know, to our economy, to the development of the country,
02:50but more importantly, to the ordinary Zimbabweans.
02:52The law in its current form could be disastrous for civil society organizations. But is there
02:58still a way to find a common ground between government oversight and civil society freedom?
03:05What we would need would include a process of, you know, focusing on oversight and not
03:15on control. We need to have a situation where the financial regulatory framework focuses on
03:25very basic things like know your client, like having an anti-money laundering regime, which is supported
03:36by forms, where, you know, institutions are able to get the beneficial owner, as well as the
03:46beneficial controller of financial transactions that are done through the financial system.
03:53Political opposition in Zimbabwe faces significant challenges. With elections due in three years,
03:59analysts are worried that this law is another step towards silencing critics. But the law has already
04:06been passed. So what can civil society do now?
04:10The first one, we are trying to look at the legal ways available to challenge the constitutionality of this piece of legislation, so that we check if it's in tandem with our Constitution. I know that it's not, and we are going to challenge its constitutionality. Secondly, we are also going to use other constitutionally available processes, you know, to challenge this act. If it means, in terms of the
04:40demonstrations if it means in terms of other advocacy initiatives but more importantly we
04:47are not going to register to an unjust law still others argue that the time for stopping this law
04:55has passed it's a situation where the horse is bolted and you can no longer close the stable
05:04doors because the horse has now left so i think we're in a situation of one compliance with the law
05:17and then two long-term advocacy that may result in further amendments of the act while the pvo could
05:28enhance national security and reduce crime experts are worried that it could be instrumentalized
05:35to clamp down on civil society and that's the flip side