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New
regulation to control youth associations; update on Monetary Policy
statement; Government Gazette - Bill Watch 5/2013
Veritas
February 04, 2013
Both Houses
of Parliament
Will Resume Sitting on Tuesday 5th February
New
Regulations to Control Youth Associations
Zimbabwe
Youth Council (General) Regulations, 2013
These extremely
wide-ranging regulations, gazetted in SI 4/2013 dated 18th January
and effective immediately, have been made by the Minister of Youth
Development, Indigenisation and Empowerment in terms of section
26 of the Zimbabwe Youth
Council Act.
Veritas will
be making the complete text of the SI and the Act available as soon
as possible as there could be far ranging implications for civil
society/NGO/faith based youth organisations.
Section 2 of
the SI states that the regulations “apply to all youth associations
that are directly or indirectly involved in youth activities”.
The term “youth activities” is not defined in the regulations
or the Act. Other provisions of the SI state that that no association
may operate without being registered in terms of the procedure detailed
in the regulations; that registered associations must submit annual
reports and accounts, and annual work plans and budgets to the Council;
that every registered association must pay an annual levy to the
Council by the 15th February each year; that donations to registered
associations must be reported and that unregistered associations
may not accept any donations at all.
SI’s
legality challengeable?
Organisations
involved in “youth activities” should consult their
legal advisers about the validity of these regulations. As a matter
of first impression, the regulations seem to go much further than
the Act permits and, if that is so, are liable:
- to attract
the attention of the Parliamentary Legal Committee [PLC], which
will also be considering whether the regulations are consistent
with section 21 of the Constitution
protecting freedom of association, and
- to be struck
down by the High Court as ultra vires.
- Examples
of provisions apparently ultra vires are:
- the requirement
that all youth associations must register [section 5], when the
Act requires only the registration of national youth associations
- provision
for a Youth Council CEO [section 4] when the Act already provides
for a Director
- the fee
for registration [section 5], although the Act does not empower
the charging of a fee [the legal rule is that regulations may
only prescribe fees if the enabling Act says so expressly or by
necessary implication, which is not the case here].
- restrictions
on donations to youth associations [section 9] on which the Act
is silent.
General comment:
the regulations are also liable to cause confusion as they divert
attention from the fact that the function of the regulations is
to supplement the provisions of the Act, not to spell out a stand-alone
set of rules.
RBZ
Monetary Policy Statement
Reserve Bank
[RBZ] Governor Gideon Gono delivered his Monetary Policy Statement
on 31st January [available on the RBZ website www.rbz.co.zw
or, if you can’t download, from veritas@mango.zw].
Points made by Dr Gono included:
- The Banking
Amendment Bill being prepared by Finance Minister Biti needs to
be operational by the end of March [Comment: This means more urgent
work for Parliament, over and above the Bills listed in Bill Watch
4/2013 sent out earlier today.]
- RBZ and
25 financial institutions have this week signed a memorandum of
understanding addressing at least some of the complaints made
against banking institutions on matters such as bank charges,
interest rates, and lending practices. The MOU takes effect from
1st March; the full text is set out as an annexure to the Monetary
Policy Statement.
- RBZ is working
on a detailed regulatory framework for mobile banking services
to be introduced later this year
- He welcomes
the recent Government announcement that it would respect Bilateral
Investment Promotion and Protection Agreements [BIPPAs] [see Bill
Watch 3/2013 of 22nd January].
AU Summit
The President
attended the AU Summit in Addis Ababa which ended on 28th January.
The Zimbabwe situation was not on the agenda for the Heads of State
meeting, and does not feature in the Summit’s decisions and
resolutions. [No communiqué has been issued.]
SADC:
SA Facilitation Team Visit
Two members
of President Zuma’s facilitation team, Lindiwe Zulu and Charles
Nqakula, visited Harare on Tuesday 29th February. They had a joint
meeting with the negotiators from all three GPA
parties at which they:
- received
an update on the constitution-making
process and planning for the Referendum
- discussed
the long-awaited deployment to JOMIC of two representatives of
the SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation,
David Katye of Zambia and Colly Muunyu of Tanzania. The two were
selected months ago, and their arrival has been expected since
November, but repeatedly delayed. They are now said to be due
to arrive “any time soon”. The attachment of SADC
officials to JOMIC is nearly two years overdue; it was first directed
by the Troika of the Organ at its March 2011 Summit in Livingstone.
Reforms –
There is no report of reforms being discussed at the meeting, but
afterwards ZANU-PF negotiator Patrick Chinamasa said his party would
not agree to media law reform or other reforms before the Referendum
and elections. MDC-T’s Tendai Biti, on the other hand, said
further reforms and compliance with the Roadmap to Elections were
essential.
Government
Gazette 18th and 25th January and 1st February
- Statutory
Instruments [SIs] [None of these currently available from Veritas]
- Zimbabwe
Youth Council regulations SI 4/2013 [see details above]
National Parks
fees SI 5/2013 sets out the new tariff of fees, as approved by the
Minister of Environment and Natural Resources Management, that will
be charged by the Parks and Wild Life Management Authority for its
services and the use of its facilities. The twelve categories of
fees include entry and accommodation fees, river usage fees, fees
for hunting trophies in concession areas, and special fees for activities
such as moonlight viewing.
Chartered Secretaries
disciplinary by-laws SI 9/2013 sets out new disciplinary by-laws
for the chartered secretaries profession, made by the Council of
the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators. The previous
by-laws, dating from 1975, are repealed.
Collective
bargaining agreements
SI 6/2013 contains
a brief agreement on the correct classification of rapid response
personnel for the purposes of the principal agreement for the electronics,
communications and allied industry [SI 247/2006]. SI 8/2013 corrects
a mistake in SI 174/2012 about the ordinary hours of work for workers
in the printing, packaging and newspaper industry. SI 11/2013 notifies
an arbitral award setting out wages for the detergents, edible oils
and fats industry for 2011 and 2012.
Manpower development
SI 13/2013 sets out the requirements for certification as a carriage
and wagon fitter in the mechanical engineering industry.
Local authority
by-laws SI 7/2013 contains the Kusile Rural District Council’s
new by-laws about sand abstraction and excavation.
General
Notices [GNs]
Government Financial
Statement GN 16/2013 notifies the publication in the Gazette of
18th January of the consolidated statement of financial performance
for October 2012.
Order against
CIMAS Medical Aid Society under Competition Act GN 23/2013 of 25th
January contains the Competition and Tariff Commission’s decision
against CIMAS over its practice of directing members needing dialysis
to a centre in which it has an interest and at the same time refusing
to reimburse members’ claims for dialysis procedures at another
dialysis centre. The Commission found this to be a “restrictive
practice” contrary to the public interest in terms of section
32 of the Competition Act, and accordingly ordered CIMAS [1] to
desist from directing its members to a specific service provider
and [2] to honour members’ claims for reimbursement for procedures
at any dialysis centre, at a rate specified by the Commission in
the order.
Veritas makes
every effort to ensure reliable information, but cannot take legal
responsibility for information supplied
Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website.
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