POSA must be amended
Innocent Gonese, MDC-T Chief Whip and MP for Mutare Central, recently presented parliament with a motion seeking the permission of the House to bring in a Bill to amend the Public Order and Security Act (POSA).
POSA has its origins in the Rhodesian Law and Order Maintence ACT (LOMA), used by the colonial government under Ian Smith to suppress political expression and organisation by the black majority. Rather than get rid of the much reviled law, the Mugabe regime kept it, revised it and strengthened it to become what it is today.
POSA is an extensive piece of legislation, which includes provisons to control political gatherings – it requires individuals and groups to notify police before any gathering is held.
POSA is an insult to democracy. In 2004 Sokwanele wrote an article looking at some of the more repressive elements of the law, which include the incredible provision that it is an offence to “undermine the authority of or insult the President” . (Can you imagine any democratic country anywhere in the world getting away with a provision like this?) The law also penalises an individual’s failure to carry identity documents, among other things.
Innocent Gonese’s Bill seeks
“to ensure that public gatherings are regulated in a manner that will allow Zimbabweans to fully exercise their fundamental democratic right to engage, to express themselves through the medium of peaceful assembly and association and to clarify some of the existing provisions in the current Act”.
Veritas explain that his Bill would re-define terms, reduce police powers, transfer the power to prohibit meetings from police to magistrates, and repeal the provision penalising failure to carry ID documents.
POSA needs to be revised. In its current form – especially with the Zimbabwe Republic Police’s fast and loose interpretation of it – POSA undermines the Global Political Agreement which contains an Article on Freedom of Assembly and Association:
12.1 Recognising the importance of the freedoms of assembly and association in a multi-party democracy and noting that public meetings have to be conducted in a free, peaceful and democratic manner in accordance with the law, the Parties have agreed:
(a) to work together in a manner which guarantees the full implementation and realisation of the right to freedom of association and assembly; and
A critical fact that everyone should note about POSA, is that despite its frequent use by the Zanu PF party – and its continued use today – it has never successfully resulted in a prosecution. That fact, plus the point that no Zanu PF officials or supporters have ever been arrested under POSA, demonstrates that the law is little more than a tool for political oppression.
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights drive home the above facts in their most recent edition of The Legal Monitor, highlighting arrests and prosecutions under POSA since 2003:
STATISTICS ON THE USE OF POSA AGAINST HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS
2003
- There were 55 cases involving the arrest and detention of Human Rights Defenders (HRDs), involving a total of 822 HRDs
- Of the 822 HRDs arrested, 274 individuals were charged under POSA
- None of them were successfully prosecuted by the State
2004
- A total of 155 HRDs were charged under POSA
- None of them were successfully prosecuted by the State
2005
- A total of 547 HRDs were arrested during this year
- 52 of the HRDs were charged under POSA
- None of them were successfully prosecuted by the State
2006
- A total of 577 HRDs were arrested during the year
- Of these, 65 HRDs were charged under POSA
- None of them were successfully prosecuted by the State
2007
- There were 96 cases of arrest and detention of HRDs, involving a total of 1,127 individuals.
- POSA was used in just 5 instances, owing to the advent of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act, which duplicated POSA in entire sections
- As such the code was used in 24 instances of arrest and detention
- None of the HRDs were successfully prosecuted by the state – either under POSA or the Criminal Code
2008
- There were 1,446 instances of arrest and detention of HRDs
- Of these, 271 were charged with participating in unlawful gatherings and were charged under either POSA or the Criminal Code
- None of the cases finalised have been successfully prosecuted by the State
2009
- At least 125 people have so far been arrested and accused of participating in gatherings and charged under either POSA or various provisions of the Criminal Code
- None of the cases thus far have been successfully prosecuted by the State, save for one instance in which the HRDs paid admission of guilt fines. This was to secure their release and avoid being detained in inhumane and degrading conditions in police cells. The admission of guilt fines are now being challenged by the affected HRDs in the Magistrates’ Court.
