By Staff Reporter
JUSTICE Minister ,Ziyambi Ziyambi says the finalisation of the PVO Bill will go a long way to clear a lot of mess bordered on political interference which is bedeviling the nation of Zimbabwe.
Speaking in Parly recently Ziyambi expressed excitement over the passing of the Bill in the lower house.
“l want to thank the Hon. Senators for this day that the Lord has made, whereupon our Parliament has passed the Private Voluntary Organisations Amendment Bill [H.B. 2A, 2024].”
Before the passing of the PVO Bill, Ziyambi had told the Senate that the Bill before them was a very necessary measure to improve the administration, accountability, and transparency of charities in the country.
“The legal word for charity in our country is Private Voluntary Organisation (PVO), under our law every charity that uses money collected from the public or donated from a foreign government or foreign agencies is required to be registered as a PVO, in terms of the PVO Act which the Bill before you seeks to amend.
“As the government, we are also aware that some so-called charities act in a partisan manner by directing money to favoured political parties or candidates at the expense of other political parties or candidates.
“Partisan assistance using foreign money or money collected from the public under the guise of charity must never be allowed to influence the outcome of national or local elections. In many developed countries, this kind of behaviour is understood to be harmful to the very idea of charity,” said Ziyambi.
Ziyambi said that in the United States, for example, one cannot register any organisation as a non-profit organisation for tax purposes if that organisation campaigns or canvasses for any political candidate or party.
“It is in this context that this Bill seeks to clean up the space within which PVOs may operate.”
The minister highlighted that sometime now, the government had noticed, that the so-called charities (some) had completely by passed the Private Voluntary Organisations Act by forming “trusts” sanctioned by the Registrar of Deeds, Companies and Intellectual Property.
