“It is futile hurrying to write a law which will prove perishable only the morning after.”
Zimbabwe’s 2013 Constitution imposes on the State, among other obligations, to ensure
practical measures are taken to protect and promote fundamental rights and freedoms
enshrined in the Bill of Rights for their realisation and fulfilment.
Remarks by bureaucrats, such as Charamba, betray the government’s determination to
maintain the status quo and proceed to the 2018 elections without reforms despite pledges
by President Mnangagwa to break with the past. Such statements smack of insincerity on
the part of government and a great betrayal to the multitudes that marched in November
2017 demanding Mugabe’s departure in the hope of a new constitutional dispensation. Over
and above the obligations imposed on the State by the constitution, Charamba should be
reminded of the findings and recommendations of the government-sanctioned Information
and Media Panel of Inquiry (IMPI), spearheaded by his very own ministry.
The 666-page report released on 18 March 2015, recommends the repeal of laws such as
AIPPA, Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act (CODE), BSA, Censorship and
Entertainment Controls Act (CECA), Official Secrets Act (OSA) and Copyright and
Neighbouring Rights Act.
The report notes that:
“The orientation of laws affecting the information sector has been one of control,

and not one of viewing this sector anew as a growth pole in the national economy.
Legally, the information revolution has thrown up new issues to do with growth
promotion, regulation, standards and protection of society from negative, harmful
material.
“The main recommendation is the need for review of existing media laws in line with
the Constitution, including media regulation and removal of all penal measures and
criminalisation.”
To therefore act otherwise, would be a serious subversion of the people’s will as expressed
through their endorsement of the 2013 Constitution and the IMPI public outreach
programmes’ findings and recommendations.

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