ZAPU leader Dr Dumiso Dabengwa has revealed that he is the brains behind the original Public Order and Security Act (POSA) Bill but former President Robert Mugabe refused to sign it because it was “too liberal.”

In an interview yesterday, Dr Dabengwa said the POSA Bill that eventually sailed through Parliament, was a “grossly edited version” of
his brainchild.
POSA repealed the draconian and colonial- era Law and Order Maintenance Act (LOMA).
It was introduced in Zimbabwe in 2002 and amended in 2007.
Dr Dabengwa, who was then Home Affairs Minister, said he was the mover to replace LOMA and invited the Law Society of Zimbabwe and members of civil society to discuss POSA.
“Indeed, POSA is my baby because I had been tortured and imprisoned by the Rhodesian government under LOMA during the liberation struggle. It really pained me to see the same piece of legislation that was used to
imprison us in the early 1960s still in place in Zimbabwe hence I made a move to have it completely repealed and replaced by POSA when I was Home Affairs Minister,” he said.