FULL TEXT: Govt Gazettes Freedom Bill Which Invalidates AIPPA

The government has today gazetted the Freedom of Information Bill which repeals the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA). AIPPA was enforced in 2002 by the Zimbabwean Parliament under the majority of the ZANU–PF and President Robert Mugabe. The bill will go through Parliamentary debates and public hearings. Several human rights activists and civil society groups have been calling for its removal saying that they infringed on human freedoms. The process to repeal the AIPPA and its sister bill, POSA, started in 2018 with the Minister of Information, Monica Mutsvangwa labelling them relics of the old dispensation. She added that the ills had some sections which were not in resonance with the national Constitution hence the need to repeal them. She added:

Therefore AIPPA, which falls under my ministry, will be repealed as soon as His Excellency assents to the Zimbabwe Media Commission Bill after being tabled before Cabinet and Parliament.

Read the full text below on the gazetted Freedom Bill.