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Zvamaida Murwira and Farirai Machivenyika
Former United States Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Mr Johnnie Carson has spoken highly of electoral and media reforms which President Mnangagwa’s administration has undertaken since the July 2018 harmonised elections, saying Harare was on course to implementing recommendations made by poll observer missions.

Mr Carson, also a former Ambassador to Zimbabwe, said this in Harare last Friday.

He was leading an international election observer mission, the International Republican Institute and National Democratic Institute, that was assessing progress on Harare’s implementation of its recommendations.

This followed recommendations made by IRI/NDI and other local and international election observer missions that observed last July’s polls in which President Mnangagwa of Zanu-PF trounced his closest rival, MDC-Alliance leader Mr Nelson Chamisa.

Mr Carson said his team had met various stakeholders to monitor and benchmark progress achieved since the 2018 electoral cycle.

The assessment was guided by the Declaration of Principles for International Election Observation as well as regional and international standards.

“The delegation acknowledges that the Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs as well as the Speaker of the National Assembly, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission and the Ministry of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services have taken steps to enact a comprehensive legislative reform agenda.

“The delegation commends the relevant institutions, parliamentary committees and ministerial bodies for initiating legal reforms immediately following the sitting of Parliament,” said Mr Carson while addressing journalists.

“The establishment of the inter-ministerial taskforce chaired by the Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs and the creation of a committee of Political and Electoral Reforms at the Cabinet level are two of the most significant actions to date.”

The diplomat commended Zimbabwe for repealing the Public Order and Security Act (POSA) and the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA).

“Parliament, acting upon the recommendations from numerous election observation missions dating back to (year) 2000 has introduced legislation to repeal and replace POSA and AIPPA.

“Portions of these two laws were not in line with fundamental rights and freedoms enshrined in the Constitution and the Government of Zimbabwe has taken positive steps to repeal and replace the two restrictive laws,” said Mr Carson.

He noted that a Bill to replace POSA, the maintenance of Peace and Order Bill was already before Parliament while three new pieces of legislation would replace AIPPA.

The other Bills are Freedom of Information (FOI) Bill, Data Protection Bill and the Zimbabwe Media Commission Bill while the Broadcasting Services Amendment Bill had been approved by Cabinet.

“Advancements to promote a more balanced and fair media environment in Zimbabwe including the recently gazetted FOI Bill contain progressive provisions for the disclosure and designation of information officers,” said Mr Carson.

Earlier, Mr Carson had hailed Speaker of the National Assembly Advocate Jacob Mudenda for leading the legislative reform agenda.

He had paid Adv Mudenda a courtesy at Parliament.

“We have just had an extremely informative and useful briefing by the Speaker of Parliament about the legislation that is pending in Parliament to implement some of the reforms that were recommended by NDI and IRI and other international observation groups that were participating as observers in the harmonised elections,” he said.

He said the Speaker went through the various pieces of legislation on the economic side that have been moved in Parliament consistent with Government’s Vision 2030.