Background to this Policy Brief Following the outbreak of the COVID-19 (Coronavirus of 2019) around the world which started in December 2019 in China, a number of measures have been put in place by different governments. In Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa declared the COVID-19 crisis a “national disaster” on Friday, March 27, 2020 and proclaimed…
We, the representatives of civil society organisations, social movements and progressive citizens, met under the auspices of the Citizens’ Manifesto convergence platform to deliberate on the current situation in the country, including the impactof the COVID-19 pandemic. The Forum received presentations from Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and Development (ZIMCODD), Women in Politics Support Unit (WIPSU), Zimbabwe National…
As the Citizens’ Manifesto we express our deepest concern over the recent announcement made by the Parliament of Zimbabwe that the Portfolio Committee on Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs will hold public hearings on the Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment No.2 Bill from the 15th to the 19th of June 2020. Our concern lies primarily on the…
On the occasion of Africa day 2020, we must introspect and ask bold questions on the status of the African citizen more than 5 decades since the founding of the Organization of African Unity ( now African Union). Indeed, Africa’s independence is meaningless if it can’t be counted in terms of tangible advancement in the…
We, the representatives of civil society organisations, social movements and progressive citizens, met virtually under the auspices of the Citizens’ Manifesto convergence platform as part of our continuing consultations on the Covid-19 crisis and the general situation in Zimbabwe. We heard detailed narratives from different institutions which included presentations from Organisations of Rural Associations for…
As the Citizens’ Manifesto, we are outraged by the heavy-handed manner in which the state responded to the Wednesday 13 May demonstration by the MDC Youth Assembly. We hold that Citizens regardless of their political affiliation have a sacrosanct right to express their grievances. We condemn in the strongest terms the abduction and torture of three…
Unite: You have nothing to lose but your chains! Fraternal greetings in the name of the struggle for working people’s rights. We join our allies in the labor movement, both formal and informal, as represented by ZCTU, ARTUZ, VISET, BVTA, and other working people’s organizations, in commemorating the International Workers Day. A day set aside…
We, the representatives of civil society organisations, social movements and progressive citizens, met virtually – for the second time since the commencement of the National Lockdown – under the auspices of the Citizens’ Manifesto convergence platform to deliberate on the current Coronavirus crisis and the extension of the national lockdown by another 14 days to…
We, the representatives of civil society organisations, social movements and progressive citizens, met virtually under the auspices of the Citizens’ Manifesto convergence platform to deliberate on the current Coronavirus crisis and the 21-day national lockdown declared by the Government of Zimbabwe. We do hereby express ourselves as follows: Access to Reliable and Timely Information –…
On 25 March VISET, the Vendors Initiative for Social and Economic Transformation (VISET) in collaboration with the Citizens’ Manifesto distributed informational material to the network of informal workers in Harare to raise awareness of hygiene measures to protect against transmission of COVID-19 in the informal working spaces and to provide general information on COVID-19. On…