The Sunday Mail
Retired Major Action Mandingo
Finally, and much to the relief of many patriotic Zimbabweans, the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Amendment Act, 2023 (No. 10 of 2023) — commonly referred to as the Patriotic Act — has now been signed into law.
This law was long overdue, but, as they say, better late than never.
The signing of the law was confirmed through General Notice 1189 of 2023.
The notice by the Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet, Dr Misheck Sibanda, announced this most welcome development, saying: “The following laws, which were assented to by His Excellency the President, are published in terms of Section 131(6)(a) of the Constitution of Zimbabwe — Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Amendment Act, 2023 (No. 10 of 2023), Labour Amendment Act, 2023 (No. 11 of 2023).”
The Bill sailed through Parliament in June 2022, after 99 MPs voted in its favour and 17 against.
It then sailed through the Senate before the Presidential assent.
In simple terms, the Act criminalises anyone caught “wilfully injuring the sovereignty and national interest of Zimbabwe” and those who participate in meetings with the intention of promoting economic sanctions against the country.
Any patriotic Zimbabwean would welcome such a law, considering the way the illegal sanctions imposed by the United Kingdom and the United States have ravaged the economy and torn the country’s socio-political fabric. The country’s economy has been under sustained attack since the imposition of sanctions following the historic land reform programme that saw Government redistributing land to the black majority.
The sanctions were imposed at the instigation of the then Morgan Tsvangirai-led MDC, which had been formed by the British and Americans to effect regime change in Zimbabwe.
The MDC sellouts went on countless trips to the UK and US calling for the imposition of sanctions and came back home with dirty money as appreciation from their masters.
Up to this day, Tsvangirai’s MDC, which has now been re-branded as CCC, continues holding clandestine meetings with the country’s enemies in the hope that they will assist them to wrest power from the ruling ZANU PF.
Seeing that it was now in the DNA of the opposition to continue selling out the country, the ZANU PF Government has decided to defend and protect the country from “whites in black skin” by coming up with the much-needed Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Amendment Act.
As was expected, the sellouts in the opposition and their supporters, who claim to be human rights lobbyists and activists, have gone into overdrive, trying to tarnish the image of the Second Republic.
They are raising flimsy concerns that the Act will muzzle freedom of speech.
What nonsense!
Freedom of speech to cause the continued suffering of ordinary people?
Freedom of speech to reverse the gains of the liberation struggle?
Freedom of speech to smuggle puppets into Government?
If that is what they call freedom of speech, then to hell with that freedom of speech!
Since the Second Republic came into power, the country’s economy has been on a growth trajectory and the only thing that poses a danger to this growth are reckless Zimbabweans who are failing to accept that regime change has failed.
These reckless Zimbabweans know that they cannot stop the growth trajectory and so they want to continue rushing to their Western masters to call for more sanctions.
They are as good as terrorists and it is high time they are put in their rightful place.
We applaud President Mnangagwa for signing the Bill into law.
No amount of outside pressure will stop the Second Republic from defending and protecting Zimbabwe and its people.
When America thought its citizens were under serious threats following the September 11, 2001 attacks, it rushed to pass the USA Patriot Act. The US Congress panicked and within six weeks, it had been passed.
Soon after passing the law, the US was attacked by many human rights organisations and even some of its citizens who argued that the Act vastly expanded the government’s authority to spy on its own citizens, while simultaneously reducing checks and balances on judicial oversight, public accountability and the ability to challenge government searches in court.
The US government was accused of acting without any careful or systematic effort to determine whether weaknesses in its surveillance laws had contributed to the attacks, or whether the changes they were making would help prevent further attacks.
Some American citizens argued that many of the Act’s provisions had nothing to do with terrorism.
The Act increased the government’s power to spy in four distinct areas:
Records searches
It expanded the government’s ability to look at records on an individual’s activity being held by third parties.
Secret searches
It expanded the government’s ability to search private property without notice to the owner.
Intelligence searches
It expanded narrow exception to the Fourth Amendment that had been created for the collection of foreign intelligence information.
Trap-and-trace searches
It expanded another Fourth Amendment exception for spying that collects “addressing” information about the origin and destination of communications, as opposed to the content.
As a result, the US government was accused of having unchecked power to go through individuals’ financial records, medical histories, internet usage, bookstore purchases, library usage, travel patterns or any other activity that left a record.
Even more worrying for many American citizens, their government no longer had to show evidence that the subjects of search orders were an agent of a foreign power.
The FBI did not even have to show a reasonable suspicion that the records were related to criminal activity, while judicial oversight of these new powers was said to be non-existent.
Despite the outcry, the US government stood its ground in support of the Patriot Act.
The outcry from its citizens and some human rights organisations fell on deaf ears because the government was looking at the broader picture of defending and protecting the country and its citizens.
Even the UK government rushed to introduce the Anti-Terrorism Crime and Security Act on December 14, 2001.
Human Rights Watch expressed grave reservations about the powers of indefinite detention contained in the Act, arguing that this provision was incompatible with the UK’s human rights obligations.
The organisation went further, saying the government had failed to provide evidence of a state of emergency upon which the derogation from its human rights obligations was justified.
Just like the US and UK governments, the Zimbabwean government should not look back.
The Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Amendment Act is exactly what the doctor ordered.
Over the past five years, the Second Republic has managed to transform lives of many Zimbabweans through robust developmental policies, programmes and projects that are anchored on Vision 2030.
We cannot allow anyone to spoil to soup.
Sellouts should know the game is over!
