BILL WATCH 39/2024
[9th November 2024]
The PVO Amendment Bill : Can the President Sign It?
The Private Voluntary Organisations Amendment Bill was passed by the Senate on the 17th October without amendment, all its readings being concluded on the same day. The Bill is now being prepared for the President’s signature, after which it will be published in the Gazette as an Act.
All that remains to be done, it appears, is for the President to sign and assent to the Bill. Appearances are deceptive, however.
In this bulletin we shall show that the President cannot assent to it because the Bill was not passed by Parliament – or, more precisely, because Parliament passed two different Bills.
Procedure for Enacting Bills
In Zimbabwe Parliament consists of two Houses, the National Assembly and the Senate, and Bills must be passed by both Houses before they can be signed by the President and come into force as Acts of Parliament. Section 131(2) of the Constitution states the rule as follows:
“(2) An Act of Parliament is a Bill which has been—
(a) presented in and passed by both Houses of Parliament; and
(b) assented to and signed by the President;
in accordance with this Constitution.”
It is implicit in this rule that both Houses of Parliament must pass the same Bill, and that the President must assent to and sign the Bill that both Houses have passed. This must be so, obviously: if the Houses have passed different Bills, or different versions of a Bill, there is nothing for the President to sign because neither Bill or version of a Bill has been passed by both Houses.
Different Versions of the PVO Amendment Bill
The PVO Amendment Bill was published in the Gazette on the 1st March as HB 2, 2024 [link]. This is the version of the Bill that was presented in the National Assembly on the 7th March. During its passage through the Assembly it was amended extensively in Committee on the 11th July and again on the 3rd September. The Parliamentary Legal Committee passed the amendments and the Bill, as amended, received its final reading in the Assembly on the 24th September. A consolidated version of the Bill was then prepared – presumably by the staff of Parliament – which was supposed to incorporate all the amendments approved by the National Assembly. This version of the Bill was numbered HB 2A, 2024 [link] and it is this version that the Senate considered and passed on the 17th October.
Unfortunately the consolidated version of the Bill, HB 2A, 2024, did not incorporate all the amendments made by the National Assembly so there are serious discrepancies between the Bill as passed by the Assembly and the version passed by the Senate:
·The long titles of the two Bills are different.
·The National Assembly version of the Bill inserts a preamble into the PVO Act. This is missing from the Senate version.
·More seriously, the Assembly version retains the PVO Board, though with a changed membership, and gives it the function of approving the registration of PVOs. The Senate version, on the other hand, abolishes the Board and confers all the Board’s functions on the Registrar of PVOs.
·The Senate version has a long Part dealing with annual PVO Forums. The version passed by the Assembly omits this Part.
·The amendments that the two versions make to section 6 of the Act (which deals with the registration of PVOs) are significantly different:
o The Assembly version makes provision for pre-existing PVOs (which it calls “pre-existing charitable entities”). The Senate version makes no such provision.
o The Senate version contains a proviso allowing certain PVOs to continue to operate before applying for registration. This is omitted from the Assembly version.
·The Assembly version contains an amendment clarifying and restricting a prohibition against PVOs acting in a politically partisan manner. The Senate version omits this amendment.
These are important differences, material enough to make the two versions essentially different Bills.
What Can be Done?
The President certainly cannot sign HB 2A, 2024 – the Senate version of the Bill – because it does not represent what the National Assembly passed. Likewise he could not sign a version of HB 2, 2024 (the original Bill) if it were altered to incorporate all the Assembly’s amendments, because those amendments were not passed by the Senate.
All the President can do is return the Bill to Parliament in terms of section 131 of the Constitution for it to be reconsidered. Once he has done that the National Assembly could resolve to pass the Bill again with all or some of the amendments made to it in July and September. Then a consolidated version of the Bill could be prepared, correctly incorporating all the Assembly’s amendments, and brought to the Senate for its consideration.
Alternatively, the Minister could withdraw the Bill and direct his officials to come up with a completely new one. This would be the best course to follow because, even with the Assembly’s amendments, the Bill is badly drafted and ill conceived. It is also unconstitutional, for three reasons:
1. It represents an unwarranted invasion of the right to freedom of association guaranteed by section 58 of the Constitution, and
2. Public hearings on the Bill were cancelled or aborted as a result of disorder or threatened disorder. As a result, Parliament did not properly consult the public and interested parties about the Bill as it is obliged to do by section 141 of the Constitution, and
3. The Assembly added provisions to the Bill in its Committee Stage which have nothing whatever to do with PVOs: they alter the Standard Scale of Fines in the Criminal Law Code and change the composition of the NSSA Board. These provisions were not considered by the relevant portfolio committee of Parliament and the views of the public were not sought on them – another violation of section 141 of the Constitution.
Scrapping the Bill would give the Government an opportunity to reconsider the whole question of regulating PVOs, and would allow it time to present Parliament with a new Bill, properly drafted and complying with the Constitution.
