overview of the human rights situation in zimbabwe - Kubatana

enounce a citizenship of New Zealand that she has never claimed having been born
and grown in Zimbabwe all her life 18 !
The new labour Relations Act (LRA) criminalizes strike action on the part of
workers. Used in combination with POSA it attempts to paralyse labour movements.
It introduces criminal and civil sanctions against the organiser. It therefore infringes
on the work and rights of labour movements. As Solomon Sacco 19 observes in his
critique of the LRA “In fact, to ensure that the Act had caught everyone in it dragnet,
it first sets out those who would normally be involved in a collective action such as
individual employees, trade unions and employers’ organisations and then proceeds to
say that if anyone not in that list “recommends, advises, encourages, threatens, incite,
commands, aids or procures” any unlawful collective action he is also guilty of the
offence. Therefore anyone who has anything to do with an unlawful collective action
is guilty of a very serious offence.”
The MOA is used in conjunction with POSA to create a minefield for human rights
activists and ordinary citizens. Virtually any conduct that causes offence to the police
in their absolute discretion can result in anyone being arrested for contravening the
MOA. One of the wide offences that the MOA creates is that of conduct that is likely
to result in a breach of the peace. In real life application, the police have been able to
interpret in their own unfettered discretion and depending on what is convenient at a
particular time, any human behaviour to be conduct that is likely to result in a breach
of the peace. Zimbabwe Lawyers For Human Rights’ experience has been that in the
majority of cases where human rights activists have been targeted for persecution, the
state initially charges them with violation of POSA and if they meet with resistance,
they normally downgrade the charges to violation of a section of the MOA. 20
The Presidential Powers Act (PPA) allows the President of Zimbabwe to make
regulations in circumstances when it appears to the President that-
- a situation has arisen or is likely to arise which needs to be dealt with urgently
in the interests of defence, public safety, public order, public morality, public
health, the economic interests of Zimbabwe or the general public interest; and
- the situation cannot adequately be dealt with in terms of any other law; and
because of the urgency, it is inexpedient to await the passage through
Parliament of an Act dealing with the situation;
18
See Registrar General of Births and Deaths –v- Judith Garfield Todd SC 4/03 where Justice
Malaba ordered as follows “For the avoidance of doubt, the respondent has two days, from the handing
down of this judgment, within which to renounce her New Zealand citizenship in accordance with the
New Zealand Citizenship Act.
In the event of her failure to do so, she will lose her Zimbabwean
citizenship by operation of the law.”
19 Solomon Sacco is a member of ZLHR currently studying for a Masters in International Human
Rights Law at University of Pretoria.
20 ZLHR records show that in 2003 a total of 332 human rights defenders were arrested and charged
under the MOA for peacefully expressing their views.
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