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Isdore Guvamombe-Reflections

I am not a regular imbiber but once in a while I go into a decent bar for an hour of two, just to catch up.

And just last week, I popped into a hotel bar, seeking decency, social distance and a bit of catching up.

A long-time friend of mine was surprised to see me there and he forgot about all this Covid-19 restrictions and jumped into a huge hug. I smelt malt!

He works for an NGO and he ordered for me, my usual Coke, which I had the pleasure to receive. I chugged it with a bit of discomfort as, I knew he would start his usual anti-Government ranting. 

If fact, it was not going to be new because every time I meet him with some people, he does not forget to tell them that I am a Zanu-PF sympathiser. Depending on his mood, he at time tell them:-“This is Mr Zanu PF himself!” 

Before I chugged my second sip, he shouted on top of his voice, going ballistic about the 2023 elections and how the NGO world was already working with the opposition to dislodge Zanu PF.

“This time, we are getting good money from our sponsors. Our proposals are already done and we are running with strengthening of democratic institutions because that is where Zanu PF, always beats us.” 

The fad of our time is that the US has ascribed itself the right to police the world, through an array of NGOS and goes on to sanction, with impunity, any country that does not tow its line of thinking. 

Little Zimbabwe is one such victim, sanctioned for daring to liberate its majority black people and empower them with land that they had been deprived of by a minority white Rhodesian government. 

The painful narrative of my estranged friend is that the NGOs are being sponsored by US and its allies to force the Zanu PF Government to reform itself out of power. As he explained the reforms, it was clear he was talking about all institutions that he thought would give advantage to the opposition and bring down Zanu PF. So democracy to him and those of his ilk, is anything that removes Zanu PF from power. Nothing less!

His sipped his malt while I chugged my coke, again and again, and… boy, ooh, boy, he never stopped. The more the beer got into his mouth and obvious to his mind, the more he let the cat out of the bag.

“We know your Government wants to deregister many NGOs. The Americans, George Soros Foundation, and Osisa, even NDI are aware of that so we will register more NGOs so that even if you deregister more than half, we will remain with a big number still. These organisations have already budgeted for 2023, no matter what your Government does,’’ he continued.

I decided to leave but not without giving a parting shot. 

I chugged my Coke, placed the glass on the table looked at him and said: “And you are proudly a Zimbabwean horse, working for Americans and their allies against your own country, just for money? My foot!” 

I had incensed him and he yelled and shouted at me, as I walked out.

The NGO sector, this huge monster that claims to be the beginning and the end of human rights, justice, good governance, democracy and accountability, but instead has caused untold anxiety and suffering of many people in this country either through commission or omission. 

Most of the NGOs in Zimbabwe have failed to keep on the lane they registered for, and the desperate and gullible detractors of the country, led by the US, have been swallowing the NGOs lies hook, line and sinker and giving little everyone else who claims to be an NGOs, money as long as they believe, it will help remove the Zanu PF government from power. 

The anti-Government NGO world has become a conveyor belt for money for many political thugs and fraudsters in Zimbabwe, whom one day, the US and its allies will be sad to discover. 

The US and its allies have spent millions of dollars in what they call democratic forces in Zimbabwe in particular and other countries deemed errant, but unbeknown to US and its allies, it has become a money spinning venture. The result are less important that the money the NGO fraudsters pocket.  

So, the practice of controlling NGOs that are financed from abroad is widely used in different countries all over the world. 

It is so significant that some of the countries even take radical measures such as banning them at legislative level. 

Zimbabwe has been different and too tolerant of some nonsensical NGOs. Well, Zimbabwe is an interesting country! There is a multifarious array of NGOs that religiously claim to represent us in our broad totality. 

This villager is biting the bullet here and will not apologise.

In all the cases, these NGOs in Zimbabwe are funded from abroad by countries and individuals with their sinister motives and, unfortunately being in Africa, the majority of NGOs are funded by former colonial masters or individuals and institutions that have a direct link with the colonial master or colonial thinking and promotion of white supremacy.

Their story is not a Zimbabwean story, but a European narrative or an American, a story that sees things through Western European eyes, never a village perspective. 

The European narrative is dangled as a carrot to our gullible people until they go for it hook, line and sinker, then regurgitate the story, again and again, even against themselves.

Right now our people have forfeited their right to benefit from teeming wildlife, because NGOs have campaigned against it. 

Their homes, their crop fields, their gardens and even people have lost limp and life from wildlife attacks. 

These NGOs are also in mining, in investment and deep into politics. 

They are all over.

For instance, when Cecil the Lion was killed in Hwange, we saw outsiders mourning more than the bereaved. It was a European story, the villagers whose cattle were killed systematically by Cecil for more than a decade, were never given a voice. 

The money raised by Cecil’s death was given to the NGO community and not the villagers who endured long exposure to Cecil’s deadly canines, who lost their livestock and suffered discomfort. So who benefited?

Today, Zimbabwe is sitting on more than 70 tonnes of ivory that it cannot sell, because animal rights NGOs have made it impossible for the country to trade in ivory yet. If sold, that ivory could have generated revenue for wildlife conservation.

Now, through false information provided by NGOs, Western countries have banned the importation of elephant and lion trophies from producer countries such as Zimbabwe.

The US, has banned trophies hunted from Zimbabwe from entering the its soil and the European Union. Parliament is lobbying for the ban of wildlife trophies in Europe supported by a coterie of NGOs and some African countries with no wildlife to talk about. 

Zimbabwe and many other countries should seriously consider working on a legislative and executional framework to protect its sovereignty and independence from foreign intervention, via NGOs. Most NGOs have done more harm than good to this country.

Zimbabwe will not be the first to do this: The first law on NGOs in the US (the Foreign Agency Registration Act) was enacted in 1938. 

The law on Lobbyism, adopted in 1995, toughened control over NGOs who are lobbying for foreign governments’ interests against the USA.

In India, Israel, Ethiopia, Egypt and Algeria, among others, things are even worse as control of NGOs has been tightened since 2011.

By their actions, these NGOs have invited the wrath of many reasonable people and the Government and they must not be surprised if the Government of Zimbabwe starts cracking the whip.