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Dr Mhiripiri

Evelene Taadira and Marcia Gore
THE National Association of Non Governmental Organisations — an umbrella civil society body with almost 1 000 quasi-political members — has admitted that the West’s illegal economic sanctions had deeply affected its operations and was willing to partner Government in fighting the embargo.

Analysts said Nango’s Damascene moment, which comes on the heels of a similar admission by Econet Wireless Zimbabwe, was the clearest sign that the regime change agenda had aborted in the wake of the harmonised elections that are touted to have handed the British their heaviest defeat in 60 years.

NGOs in Zimbabwe have been as much a part of the Western assault on Government as they proliferated when sanctions constrained Government’s capacity to fund social services.

The void left by Government was then filled by the non-state actors who openly turned political to abet the regime change agenda.
Zimbabwe hosts over 2 000 NGOs, mostly Western-sponsored.

In the wake of MDC-T’s debilitating loss to Zanu-PF, Western countries cut down on funding as they questioned MDC-T’s capacity to bring a return on their investments of the past decade, and the funding cuts sucked in NGOs.

A number of international NGOs, which were at the forefront of pushing the MDC-T agenda, are already downsizing in the wake of Western donor fatigue.

Nango national chairman Mr Paul Juru last week said the NGO community was now willing to partner Government in fighting the economic sanctions.

“We recognise that there are sanctions in the country. They are real and those people that are vulnerable are at the receiving end,” he said.

“We are determined to engage relevant powers towards the scrapping of the sanctions. We are looking forward to working with Government in identifying international players who will have a voice in the scrapping off of the embargo.”

Mr Juru said the sanctions were imposed on Zimbabwe as part of an inconsiderate political game.
“We need political players both international and national to engage each other and play their politics well so that the sanctions are removed as early as possible,” he said.

“These sanctions should be scrapped off like yesterday, the international community should know that the sanctions are hitting hard on the Zimbabwean community. It is not good for some other countries to enjoy whereas some others are suffering from man-made restrictions and impositions,” he said.

Mr Juru, who is also the Sadc Council of Non-Governmental Organisations president, said the sanctions, that are estimated to have cost Zimbabwe over US$42 billion in revenue, had caused untold brain drain.

“Many Zimbabweans are domiciled elsewhere because of the sanctions. If they come back they will help build our country so that it becomes formidable and contribute to the bread basket status,” he said.

Sources in the NGO community said “downsizing” was jargon used to imply that the organisations would have closed, sometimes leaving only the head and the secretary at the offices.

GOAL Zimbabwe, a food aid specialist and an Irish humanitarian organisation, is cutting its staff in Harare by more than 90 percent.
A source in the NGO sector said others that were struggling to attract funds included Save the Children, Sida Zimbabwe, Plan International, Shape Zimbabwe, Student Solidarity Trust and Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition.

GOAL Zimbabwe, which began operating in the country in 2002, three years after the launch of the MDC, is retrenching its workers without any packages.

The organisation spearheaded food aid mainly in Mashonaland West and Manicaland, but has often been accused of politicisation of food aid in favour of MDC-T.

GOAL Zimbabwe country director Mr Kelly McAulay last week admitted that they were experiencing challenges in securing donor funding.

“Like many other organisations, GOAL has experienced a challenge in securing funding owing to the reduction in the funding that the country has received from donors,” he said.

“As far as GOAL is concerned, our funding has decreased. We foresaw the challenges as early as November 2012, but could not proceed with the restructuring exercise since all the staff had contracts that would expire in October 2013.

“However, since April 2013, our management has held consultative meetings with staff in all our operational sites to explain the situation.”

Workers who spoke on condition of anonymity said no consultations were being made on packages.
“We did not get enough notice and there are laws which were supposed to have been followed to avoid such a move, but nothing was done in that regard,” said one of the workers.

An online NGO alliance, Kubatana.net, revealed last week that the downsizing taking place at Sida Zimbabwe was a “response to allegations of human rights violations as well as the alleged government’s illegal activities and disrespect for democracy”.

Political analysts and observers said it was not surprising that it was no longer business as usual for the NGOs.
“They are still registered, but if you go to most of the offices you will find just a few people and quite a number of them do not even have a programmes officer or any programme that they are working on,” said social and economic justice activist Mr Thomas Deve.

Political analyst Dr Nhamo Mhiripiri said most of the NGOs had planned for the future with the MDC-T in mind.
“Zimbabwe had been overlooked in the international financial budget for NGOs as their financiers were confident of a result in their favour,” he said.

“Some of these organisations were not NGOs, but pressure groups who were here to transform the political landscape in Zimbabwe. They were over-confident of a favourable result and the election result had not been budgeted for.”

Zanu-PF deputy director of information Cde Psychology Maziwisa said leaving Zimbabwe was the most sensible thing for partisan NGOs as they would not succeed in effecting regime change.

Efforts to get comment from the Federation of Non Governmental Organisations director Mr Goodson Nguni were fruitless yesterday