Fighting Zanu-PF no longer lucrative

There was a time when everybody who wanted to lure Western funding would venture into the business of fighting Zanu-PF. Cunning people made money out of this business through siphoning the gullible western funders who desperately wanted to remove President Mugabe through any means.

The West has now come to their senses and have realised that they have been pouring their money into bottomless pit. The more they sponsored the NGOs the more Zanu-PF won elections. Any fool cannot continue with a loss-making venture like the regime change project.

The recent remarks made by Dr Phillan Zamchiya, the newly appointed boss of the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition (CZC) show that the NGOs are beginning to see light. Blessed are the prodigal sons who remember their homes after going astray.

"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," said Zamchiya.

It is yet to be seen if Zamchiya did not sell us a dummy. Zimbabwe waits to see how this convert would be progressive in the rebuilding of the nation that was ravaged by the illegal sanctions imposed by the west at the behest of the MDC-T.

It appears Zamchiya has set the pace for all those who used to make money out of demonising own nation. It is a fact that many made a killing out of this regime change project. Some even became legends of seas, living large in a sea of poverty. They married and divorced within short stints, burning up fortunes in the process.

Their benefactors were watching while the funds they stole from taxpayers were thrown in the drain. They realised that they were sponsoring profligacy of opportunist politicians rather than genuine regime change.

Hopefully the withdrawal of funding from the regime change agencies was not the motivation behind the U-turn by Zamchiya and his organisation. If that is the motivation then nobody should take him serious because the moment money is dangled before them, they will drool for it and once again relapse into their sell-out mode.

Just after announcing his coalition's plan to tone down on its confrontation with the government, Zamchiya announced that they would launch an alternative economic blueprint, the Zimbabwe Social Market Agenda for Recovery and Transformation (ZIMSMART). The blueprint is said to be an alternative to the government's Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation (Zim-Asset).

In a way, this exposes Zamchiya's insincerity. He has already begun to be confrontational. If he really feels that there are some shortcomings in Zim-Asset, Zamchiya must just complement government by proffering ideas and adjustments to the existing blueprint. In that way, he would have complemented government efforts in reviving the economy and that is the core mandate of the civil society organisations.

One wonders how that blueprint would be implemented in Zimbabwe. Government cannot implement a blueprint whose origin and motivation are not known. The National Constitutional Assembly did the same when they came up with their own constitution. That constitution gathered dust in the shelves until it eventually disappeared into thin air. I hope it is the constitution that the NCA would use when they miraculously get into power.

It also sounds like Zamchiya wants to transform the coalition into a political party the same way Lovemore Madhuku did to the NCA. However, NCA is there to provide a lesson for Zamchiya.

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John Sigauke <johnsigau@gmail.com