Support grows for complete overhaul of POSA

By Alex Bell
24 February 2010

Support for the repressive Public Order and Security Act (POSA) to be completely overhauled is growing, as the countrywide process to consult the public on amendments to the act continues.

The Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Defence and Home Affairs is currently on a nationwide consultative process trying to garner public opinion on proposed amendments to POSA. This follows a private motion moved by MDC-T MP, Innocent Gonese in a private members bill last year. The proposed amendments seek to among other things, largely curtail the powers of the police as well as guard against abuse of their powers in maintaining order. This abuse has been witnessed over and over again in Zimbabwe, where any individual or group openly critical of the ZANU PF government have been arrested and charged under the Act.

Dozens of individuals and representatives of civic organisations, who converged at a community centre in Harare on Monday to share their views on the act, said they felt the law should in fact be repealed. Civic organisations such the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR), the Women’s Trust, Transparency International Zimbabwe (TIZ), and the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), made submissions noting that while the proposed amendments are welcome, POSA is still in need of a complete overhaul as it is draconian in its entirety.

Irene Petras, ZLHR director said the law had been used selectively by the state on citizens opposed to the establishment.

“POSA is one of the many examples of how repressive legislation has been used and selectively applied against human rights defenders,” she said.

Petras, whose organisation has defended politicians and other individuals persecuted under the law, was among Harare based civic organisations who took time out to air their views on the amendments to the law. They echoed the sentiments of other groups who gathered in Bulawayo last week saying that repealing the act would be preferred to amendments alone. Several individuals and representatives of organisations such as Urban Councils Workers Union, the ZCTU, Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA), the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP) and Bulawayo Agenda were however told that repealing the act was ‘unrealistic.’ The Chairman of the Portfolio Committee, Paul Madzore, told the gathering that it was ‘impractical’ to repeal the act since no parliamentary member has moved such a motion.

Meanwhile on Monday, media watchdog MISA-Zimbabwe appeared before the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee, also to make submissions on the proposed POSA amendments. In its submissions, the group noted that ‘although the provisions of POSA largely impact on the constitutionally guaranteed civic liberties such as freedom of association, assembly and movement, restrictions on these rights however impinge on the right of the citizens to meet freely and express or exchange opinions, without which other fundamental freedoms cannot be enjoyed.’

MISA-Zimbabwe reiterated in a statement that the provisions proposed for amendment are generally a duplication of the old Law and Order Maintenance Act (LOMA) which the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional. For instance, Section 32 of POSA as it currently stands, empowers the police to randomly stop people in public places, search them and demand the production of identity documents. Those that are found without documents could be detained.

“This is a violation of a constitutionally guaranteed protection from arbitrary search and entry,” MISA-Zimbabwe said.

MISA-Zimbabwe also noted that the role of adjudicating and deciding who, when and how people should exercise their constitutionally guaranteed rights should not rest with the police as it does in Section 26. Section 26 allows the police to prohibit a public gathering, and in many instances under POSA the police are allowed to determine whether or not, and in what manner people can exercise their rights to express and assemble as in Section 27.

The general consensus was also that amending POSA alone was inadequate in reforming the country’s legislative environment given that other existing repressive legal instruments, such as the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) and the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act, contain provisions that would still impinge on basic freedoms.