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Isdore Guvamombe

Soon after Zimbabwe embarked on the land reform two decades ago, the western world and the United States, in particular used everything at their disposal, firstly to stop the process and secondly to punish the country in a manner that would instil fear and terror in other like-minded countries.

The Zanu PF Government, then became a target of terror tactics and the land reform was then immediately packaged as a human rights issue, but the rights were only as far as former white commercial settlers were concerned not the black majority.

The majority black Zimbabweans, who, for a century  had been forced off their prime farming land, murdered, hanged or maimed if they resisted white settler occupation, were in this regard, not seen as people with rights to regain their stolen national heritage.

With the western Europe white supremacist narrative came the need to perpetuate the anti-Zimbabwe propaganda, through a media blitz and a hodgepodge on funded Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs).

Zimbabwe then became the elephant carcass for hundreds of US and western sponsored NGOs all disguised as human right defenders.

Because US and its allies in Europe were desperate to stop the Zanu PF land reform ideology from spreading throughout Africa, they poured money, a lot of money into NGOs, most of them that did nothing meaningful except spreading malicious lies about Zimbabwe.

They employed some Zimbabweans who saw it an an opportunity to make money. It became employment and they had to tow the US line against their own country; all to make money.

Gullible US and its allies invested heavily in the anti-Zimbabwe mantra and even went on the impose illegal sanctions, all meant to cow the ruling Zanu PF party into submission. But Zanu PF being the great revolutionary party it is, stood its ground, even when opposition parties were formed and funded to dispose of it.

Yes, the sanctions affected all and sundry, send many innocent Zimbabwean men, women and children suffering and struggling for decent living.

A few years later, the information communication highway morphed into the cyber space and that gave the US and its allies, fertile ground to pummel Zimbabwe on the social media platforms. Anything from blatant lies to allusions against Zimbabwe was peddled as gospel thruth. Ethos, facts, decency and sense of beloning was all thrown out through the window of reason.

The combination of the NGOs and social media was and still is a recipe for disaster in terms of Zimbabwe’s survival.  The country was cornered, punched, shoved, kneed, spat at on the face, punched, trampled and dismembered, much to the vexation of its peace and development loving people. But the ruling party remained resolute and focused until today.

In this matrix, many NGOs were registered and only a few stuck to their mandate, most of them meddled in the country’s politics on behalf of especially the US and its allies in the EU.

The reason was simple, there was more money poured into the political destabilisation of Zimbabwe than in simply helping the poor and vulnerable people of this country. Any other description for NGOs was a smokescreen behind which the US and its allies hid their callous regime change tactics. Any NGO that was viewed to be aiding to the removal of Zanu PF from power, was given money. Suffice to say many NGOs leaders lied a lot and got a lot of money and today they drive the best cars. Today they live in the best houses. Today their children attend the best schools. Today they claim to be more patriotic and more concerned about the ordinary Zimbabweans. Today they claim to be the harbingers of democracy. What nonsense!

Now the Government has come up with two Bills to curtail the rabid and senseless onslaught by NGOs and cyber criminals and the cries are louder than any other sound you think of. To some of us, it understandable.  The Government has struck the right code. The end if nigh. The time for accountability is beckoning. The time for tomfoolery is over. It is a reality check. A country cannot be free for all, everyone must be accountable for their actions and that is precisely the reason laws are enacted, the world over.

The Cyber Security and Data Protection Bill, which seeks to punish those who abuse the social media, internet and communication networks and make the growing financial digital systems and e-commerce more efficient and better protected, has gone through Parliament and now awaits the assent of the President when it will become law.

Government and an ICT expert have welcomed the passage of the Bill, saying it will go a long way in curbing cyber crimes.

In particular, it brings together the laws for the necessary protection of personal and commercial data and puts in place the growing body of international standards to prevent cybercrime.

Suffice to say, the world over the US is the major abuser of the cyber space and does not want other countries to control their own spaces. It get worried when other countries try to control their own space, hence through it various NGOs, it will sponsor court challenges, in the name of democracy.

The objective of the Bill is to see the evolution of criminal law to take into account fast-evolving technologies and curb the abuse of networks and the internet.

And now to the Private Voluntary Organisations Amendment Bill, where the cry is the same. My most humble opinion is that each NGO must stick to its mandate.

But NGOs cannot abrogate themselves the right to effect regime change, imply because some outside country wants to pour money for regime change.

Let political parties heckle in politics.

After all, our serious political parties benefit from Political Actors Dialogue and political parties funding from treasury.

The US should not be allowed to continue posing as the world’s policeman and should not abuse cyber space.

It must let individual countries deal with their own cyber spaces. It must also allow countries to run their own affairs. It must let countries deal with their own malcontents, like NGOS and cyber criminls. Criminals are criminals, anywhre in the world, they cannot be defenders of democracy simply because they are supported by the US. NO!