Bill Watch 5/2013 New Regulation to Control Youth Associations4 February
BILL WATCH 5/2013
[4th February 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 or, if you can’t download, from ]. 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 January. 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