Crisis in Zim Coalition in major U-Turn

Efforts to effect illegal regime change in Zimbabwe are demonic and the sooner genuine non-governmental organisations start working closely with Government for the upliftment of people's lives the better, newly-appointed Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition director, Phillan Zamchiya, has said.

The pursuit of regime change, he said, was hindering national development.

The remarks by Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition represent a major U-turn by the NGO umbrella body which has worked hand in glove with MDC-T since its formation in 1999 in a bid unseat the Zanu-PF Government.

In his inaugural meeting with journalists in Harare yesterday, Dr Zamchiya chided NGOs "working with politicians seeking personal gratification".

"We are not for the demonic regime change agenda by the West, but rather we are here to initiate working solutions that will also boost the country's economy," Dr Zamchiya said.

He said NGOs risked being swallowed by power-hungry politicians.

"Civil societies should fight on common ground to address national convergence without being swallowed (up) by power hungry politicians.

"Combined efforts with any willing participant, even the Government, is what we need to boost the country's economy," he said.

Dr Zamchiya took over from Mr Macdonald Lewanika.

Mr Lewanika resigned in June amid allegations of abuse of donor funds and flouting tender procedures.

Dr Zamchiya said genuine NGOs should not always antagonise Government.

"We are not politicians and we are not aligned to any political party. Thus we are moving from an elite based approach to programming at grassroots," he said.

"We are here to serve the people affiliated to our organisation, not any political bigwigs. We are restructuring our relational capacity. We want less confrontational relations with the Government and viable stakeholders."

He said NGOs had a history of making noise without offering any solutions to the problems Zimbabwe was facing.

"For years we have been blamed for barking without any solutions," said Dr Zamchiya.

"We have since realised that there is more to our existence than fighting for the democratic gap hence the need to move towards reducing the big economic gap affecting our nation."

He revealed that 10 NGOs quit the 82 member coalition last year and more were on the verge of leaving.

Western donors are now reluctant to fund anti-Government NGOs after they reportedly abused over $850 million extended by USAID to oil the illegal regime change machine between 2011 and 2014.

The US and its allies are unhappy that despite massive funding, Zanu-PF still won the 2013 harmonised elections resoundingly.