Human Rights Archive Zimbabwe

Dr Peter Magombeyi, a medical doctor and Acting President of the Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association (ZHDA), was abducted on the night of 14 September.

On 19 September 2019, Dr Peter Magombeyi, a medical doctor was found alive and disoriented, dumped about 33 km out of Harare in a placed called Nyabira.

On Friday 11 March 2016, the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission (ZHRC) signed Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) with four Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) namely Legal Resources Foundation (LRF), Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum, Zimbabwe Human Rights Association (ZimRights), Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights (ZADHR)

The Strategic Plan informs the manner in which we engage with key stakeholders and partners in the domestic and international human rights community as we seek to fulfill our broad constitutional mandate.

The purpose of the mission was to assess the living conditions of juvenile inmates and the status of their facilities, as well as to hear the general concerns of the inmates and their proposals for solutions and recommendations.

This Bill was gazetted in the Government Gazette dated 19th April [released to the public on 17th April ahead of the public holidays on 18th and 19th April].

The Tripartite Negotiating Forum Act, 2019 (Act No. 3 of 2019) was gazetted and came into force on Tuesday 4th June [Government Gazette Extraordinary dated 4th June 2019].

Both the National Assembly and the Senate sat last week and this week. Two Bills were passed and progress made on two others.

This morning an important statutory instrument was published in a Government Gazette Extraordinary: the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (Legal Tender) Regulations, 2019 (SI 142 of 2019). The instrument can be viewed on the Veritas website

SI 142 of 2019 [link] ‒ the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (Legal Tender) Regulations, 2019, to give it its full name ‒ declared that the Zimbabwe dollar should be the sole legal tender in Zimbabwe for all transactions.

The Marriages Bill, 2019 [H.B. 7, 2019] was gazetted on Friday 19th July. The Bill can be downloaded from the Veritas website [link]. For our analysis of the Bill see Bill Watch 36/2019 of 22nd July

Parliament has in separate public notices dated 23rd July invited the public to make comments on the above-mentioned Bills. In each case the deadline for receipt of written submissions is Friday next week, 2nd August.

On the 24th July the Deputy Speaker of Parliament announced that the Parliamentary Legal Committee had issued an adverse report on the Maintenance of Peace and Order Bill, meaning that the Committee had found some provisions of the Bill to be unconstitutional. The report can be seen on the Veritas website [link] as can the Bill itself [link].

Both the Senate and the National Assembly will continue sitting this week, the third week of the current series of sittings.

On Thursday 2nd August the Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Hon Mthuli Ncube, presented his 2019 Mid-Year Budget Review and Supplementary Budget to the National Assembly. President Mnangagwa attended the presentation. Opposition MDC-A MPs did not

Both Houses of Parliament sat this week. The Senate sat on Tuesday 6th and Wednesday 7th August and then adjourned until Tuesday 27th August. The National Assembly sat on Tuesday, Wednesday and yesterday before also adjourning to Tuesday 27th August

At a sitting that started on 8th August and ended at 4.10 am on 9th August the National Assembly passed the Maintenance of Peace and Order Bill with amendments, most of which were intended to meet objections raised by the Parliamentary Legal Committee [PLC] in its adverse report on the Bill.

By furious fast-tracking of business on Wednesday 8th [they sat until 10.39 pm] and Thursday 9th [until 4.10 am on Friday morning] the National Assembly managed to pass, not only the Finance (No. 2) Bill and the Appropriation Supplementary (2019) Bill [the two Budget bills], but also, with amendments, the Maintenance of Peace and Order Bill

The 39th Ordinary Summit of the Heads of State and Government of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) was held at the Julius Nyerere International Convention Centre in Dar es Salaam, United Republic of Tanzania last weekend. All sixteen SADC member States were represented.

Recalled from their recess by the President to conduct special business [see Bill Watch 45/2019 of 12th August [link] – Senators assembled on Wednesday 14th August for a single sitting that lasted for just over eight hours, with the adjournment until Tuesday 27th August coming at 10.37 pm.

On Tuesday 27th August the Senate received the Parliamentary Legal Committee [PLC]'s non-adverse report on the amendment to clause 7(5) of the Bill made at its special sitting on 14th August.

Three months ago, when the Minister of Finance and Economic Development gazetted SI 142/2019 [link] declaring RTGS dollars to be the only legal tender in Zimbabwe, press headlines referred to the "outlawing" of the use of the US dollars and other foreign currencies in Zimbabwe. Ministers and officials said the same thing.

There will be a ceremonial opening of the Second Session on Tuesday 1st October. During this opening the President will present his State of the Nation Address [SONA] and outline the legislative agenda for this session.

President Mnangagwa opened the Second Session of the Ninth Parliament of Zimbabwe at a joint sitting of both Houses of Parliament in the National Assembly today.

The purpose of this bulletin and another to follow soon is to provide, in two Parts, an update on Government Gazettes and statutory instruments from 1st August to date which have not been noted previously in our bulletins.

This bulletin continues where Bill Watch 52 of 16th October [“Statutory Instruments: Part 1]” [link] stopped; it will deal with Government Gazettes from SI 205/2019 of 20th September up to SI 221/2019 of 18th October.

The Second Session of this Parliament – the Ninth Parliament of Parliament [and second Parliament under the 2013 Constitution of Zimbabwe] was officially opened by President Mnangagwa on Tuesday 1st October at a joint sitting of both Houses.

When opening the current session of Parliament on 1st October the President criticised Parliament’s low output of Bills during the last session

It has always been difficult to find out which international treaties are binding on Zimbabwe. This is partly because the procedures by which Zimbabwe becomes a party to treaties are not transparent, and partly because the government has not published a treaty list ‒ i.e. a list of the treaties that are binding on this country ‒ for nearly 20 years.

Both Houses will reconvene next week, having adjourned until Tuesday 12th November after their last sittings on 24th October. In the meantime, MPs and Ministers have been attending the pre-Budget Seminar at Victoria Falls from 30th October to 4th November.

The Senate and the National Assembly last sat on Thursday 24th October. Since then MPs have been occupied mainly with Budget business.

The Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Professor Mthuli Ncube, presented the 2020 National Budget to the National Assembly this afternoon

On Friday 8th November the Office of the President and Cabinet announced changes made by President Mnangagwa to his Ministerial line-up with immediate effect. The following tables show the complete Ministerial line-up including the changes, in alphabetical order by name of Ministry.

The 2020 National Budget Presentation on 14th November, noted briefly in Bill Watch 59/2019 [link], was not the only important event of the last Parliamentary week. This bulletin is to update readers on other noteworthy developments in the National Assembly that occurred last week.

Resumption of the Budget debate is on the Order Paper for today, Tuesday 26th November.

Last week, only the National Assembly was in session.

Bill Watch 65/2019 contained speculation that Parliament would, as it has done in past years, have a ten-day break to allow ZANU PF MPs to attend to their party obligations in connection with the ZANU PF Annual Conference.

AN ACT to make provision for the maintenance of peace, order and security in Zimbabwe; to repeal the Public Order and Security Act [Chapter 11:17]; and to provide for matters connected with or incidental to the foregoing.

Statement about the Political situation in Zimbabwe in November 2017

The ZHRC is encouraged by assurances by the military concerning the imperative to uphold constitutionalism and values of justice, non-violence, human rights and freedoms in resolving the current political situation.

In Parliament recently, the Deputy Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare made a Ministerial Statement on the Government’s Food Deficit Mitigation Programme, which was repeated in the Senate the following day.

This bulletin is the first of several that will draw attention to and summarise reports of the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission on investigations carried out since the Commission became operational.

This bulletin is an update on the membership of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission [ZEC] following its return to full strength with the filling of six vacancies last month.