Some civil society organisations (CSOs) in Zimbabwe have faulted President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s recent statement that CSOs are appendages of foreign powers and diplomats seeking to effect regime change.
The president made the statement while giving credence to crafting of the controversial Private Voluntary Organisations (PVO) amendment bill.
‘Over the years, a number of sending states have set up political NGOs in Zimbabwe, which abuse the notion of rights advocacy to work for political outcomes which those sponsoring states prefer’, he wrote in his weekly column in The Sunday Mail.
‘Needless to say, this is gross interference in our affairs using proxies established, especially to skew our politics towards goals and interests of some sending States.
‘What raised our alarm is how the same NGOs are used, especially during election periods, as conduits for foreign funding to preferred political parties.
‘Such NGOs thus become laundromats for washing such dirty and laundered foreign money. No state, least of those offending states, can ever tolerate such illegalities’.
However, the Executive Director of Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, Blessing Vava, said Mnangagwa was merely using the PVO bill as a scapegoat to close the democratic and civic space in the country.
‘What Mnangagwa is doing shows that he is not informed and is out of touch with reality, and the development agencies that he says want to effect regime change are the ones that are contributing to support development of this country’, NewsDay quoted Vava as saying.
‘Zimbabwe’s health budget is supported by that [and] We will continue to hold them accountable’.
The Zimbabwe Peace Project also noted in a statement that the aim of the presidency through the amendment of the PVO bill is to shrink the civic and democratic space in the country.
‘From the statements that President Mnangagwa and ZANU-PF officials are issuing, it is becoming clearer that the PVOs amendment bill is not about dealing with financial misappropriation, but rather closing down civil society organisations and shutting down democratic space’, the statement read.
The PVO amendment bill, according to NGOs, would provide the government with unfettered discretionary power to overregulate and interfere in the governance and operations of NGOs.
Freedom House ranked the southern African country as ‘not free’ in its 2022 Freedom in the World study of political rights and civil liberties, with the country earning 28 points out of a possible 100.
Photo source: President of Zimbabwe
