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Fungi Kwaramba Political Editor

TODAY, Pachedu, a shadowy troll on Twitter, manned by some faceless characters, stands starkly naked, exposed as a Trojan horse of Western nations that have an incurable colonial hangover.

In their pursuit of neo-liberalism, they seek to control Zimbabwe, by both hook and crook but always falter.

They will sponsor demonstrations, sponsor the opposition and sponsor private news organisations just to remove the Zanu PF-led Government but that will always come to naught.

Little surprise that the major characters behind Pachedu are whites and hid their white faces on social media platforms, all the while seeking to turn Zimbabweans against their Zimbabwean brothers, the hopeless dream being to install a puppet regime in the country again. It can’t.

There are so many shadowy organisations, so many non-governmental organisations and indeed so many individuals who have their hands in Uncle Sam cookie jar, licking their hands weekly to Western embassies and feeding fat on lies to their masters that one day, they will achieve the impossible, that of unconstitutionally removing a constitutionally elected Government.

As we know, the United States has availed a whooping US$1,5 million-dollar funding scheme through its National Endowment for Democracy (NED) to effect regime change and destabilise the country ahead of the 2023 plebiscite.

The money, which is being channelled through NGOs, also benefits groups like Pachedu and of course, the crisis riven Crisis Coalition.

Add to that, the ARTUZ, a minion union that has since been captured by Western countries, and the jig-saw puzzle of the pawns who tried to push for a stayaway that turned out to be a go-to-work yesterday are complete.

Of course, the US1.5 million, is change money, compared to the sums that these instigators have been promised by their handlers if they succeed in their assignments.

So expect more of such antics, but Zimbabweans have come of age and their action yesterday was a bold statement to the world that we are a sovereign nation with the right to self-determination and won’t be used to push a nefarious agenda wrapped as goodwill by erstwhile colonisers, whoever the Trojan Horse could be.

Apart from Crisis Coalition and ARTUZ, there are several other NGOs, that want to be part of the civic society gravy train and will thus aid in their nonsensical charade to make people hungry through demonstrations that now have no takers but only confused makers.

While yesterday’s so-called stayaway was a monumental flop, authorities should remain vigilant because the same pranks will be employed, more often as the country hurtles towards next year’s elections.

Isn’t it that the United States, through USAID, set aside US$5 million to influence the 2023 elections; inviting NGOs to apply for grants, ostensibly to entrench democracy and constitutionalism, but in reality to remove the Zanu PF-led Government.

Recently, the British House of Lords, itself an undemocratic institution whose creatures of patronage are unaccountable to the UK’s citizens, was the crime scene when the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office Mr Tariq Mahmood Ahmad revealed that they were working with unions to remove the Zanu PF Government.

“We certainly have been meeting in Harare with various unions, including teaching unions, most recently in September 2021 on salaries and the impact of Covid-19. Trade unions form an important part of civil society in any country, and we engage with them at all levels,” said Mr Ahmad as he exposed the UK’s hand in Zimbabwe’s political affairs.

This led President Mnangagwa to slam the British Government for being intrusive and trampling on international law.

He said the extra-territorial concern by a foreign legislature on a sovereign African state, which is a full and equal member of the United Nations, is grossly unwarranted.

“The brazen disclosure that the British Government has been meeting with various trade unions, including those for teachers, most recently in September 2021 in Harare, is yet another confirmation of very gross, unwarranted, and blatant interference in the domestic affairs of our country by the British Government.

“This is unwelcome and unacceptable. Professional ethics across the public service ecosystem must never be undermined by those who seek to promote an alien agenda. As a party and Government, we stand emboldened by the indisputable milestone we are making towards improving the plight of our people and lifting millions of people into prosperity,” said the President.

The insidious conspiracy to engage teachers by the Western countries is part of a broader plot to use local organisations as vehicles to push for regime change after failing to make headway with the fractured and often corruption-riddled opposition.

Besides, the civic society organisations are also being used as proxies for financing the same opposition, which is prohibited under the Political Parties Finance Act from getting foreign funding.

Therefore, this is the foreign hand that is seeking to destabilise Zimbabwe through sponsoring NGOs and individuals.

One cannot discount the reach and influence of such organisations, especially in the prism that possesses the power and capacity to erode state power by, among other things, providing services that the Government should provide, and also by directly interacting with their handlers, mostly ensconced in Western capitals.

This is where the Private Voluntary Organisation Bills should come in to ensure that the activities of NGOs are regulated and monitored to abide by the laws of the country.

What is wrong with a Bill whose objectives are “to comply with the Financial Action Taskforce (FATF) aligning the country’s laws with recommendation 8; ii Ensuring that PVOs are not misused by terrorist organisations; iii. Preventing the exploitation of legitimate entities as conduits for terrorist financing; iv. Streamlining administrative procedures for PVOs to allow for efficient regulation and registration; and v. Ensuring that PVOs do not undertake political lobbying.

Indeed, it comes as no surprise that the most strident opposition voices of the Bill are NGOs that have received fat cheques from Western governments, but again Zanu PF must use its majority in Parliament to pass the Bill into law and make every organisation that seeks to operate within the country toe the line after all laws are made by the majority, which is the case with the revolutionary party Zanu PF.

But local ceases to be lekker when lackeys of the Western countries are confronted with such laws, that could soon shed transparency into their operations, leaving the gates open for some slimy characters and puppets in the form of Mmusi Maimane, the house nigger who got the shove from the white-dominated Democratic Alliance party, to worm themselves in.

A friend of CCC leader Mr Nelson Chamisa, Maimane cried more than the bereaved, nay there was never a funeral in the first place, but this man pushed beyond his weight, station, and indeed location for Zimbabweans to demonstrate, itself a right enshrined in the Constitution, which Zimbabweans can exercise without the prodding of some failed South African opposition masquerade.

Just like one of his puppeteers Tony Riler once quipped, Maimane “is an experiment that went wrong” not only for the whites who were pulling the strings but also for those who wrongly think he has anything to offer.

The West, will continue pouring their money into political nonentities like Maimane but he is as useless as they come, as impotent as his peers here in Zimbabwe.

History is replete with the failure of MDC in all its variations, its handlers in all their colours and hues and indeed the present will be another rude awakening even when the US seeks to employ foreign oppositional forces in the mould of Maimane.

Since the turn of the millennium, organisations like the US Institute for Peace have bankrolled Zimbabwe’s politically inclined NGOs. Most of them are conduits through which opposition parties are financed; at times to violently remove a democratically elected Government; sometimes through riots, as was witnessed in 2018 after the harmonised elections and in January of the following year.

But once beaten twice shy, Zimbabweans are building their nation, following President Mnangagwa’s principle “nyika inovakwa nevana vayo”. No amount of politicking, economic sabotage and manipulation will take the nation’s eyes off Vision 2030 to become an upper-middle-class economy.