On Tuesday the 31st of August 2021, Cabinet approved the final draft of the PVO Amendment Bill, 2021. The Bill contains proposed changes to the Private Voluntary Organisations Act [Chapter 17:05] (‘the principal Act’) purportedly necessitated “by growing regional and global concerns about money laundering and the financing of terrorist activities”. Consequently, the Bill seeks to develop policies to combat money laundering “by any individual or institution in Zimbabwe operating under the Private Voluntary Organisations banner”; to streamline administrative procedures for private voluntary organisations to allow for efficient regulation and registration as well as to ensure that private voluntary organisations do not undertake political lobbying. What follows is an analysis of the proposed amendments to assess their bearing on the operational efficacy and independence of CSOs in Zimbabwe’s Second Republic.
