10 Bulawayo groups dump Crisis Coalition

CRISIS in Zimbabwe Coalition (CiCZ) yesterday suffered a major blow after 10 organisations from Bulawayo pulled out of the umbrella body, citing centralisation of power and decision making.

In a communiqué to the body, the Bulawayo organisations said there were amendments to CiCZ constitution that were effected without them being consulted and efforts to address this had failed.

A meeting was held at the Radio Dialogue offices in April to address the fallout and the Bulawayo organisations say there was a commitment to improve communication from the CiCZ bosses.

"Realising that the commitments were not fulfilled and no feedback was given, thus belittling the efforts made to rectify the concerns raised," the communiqué reads.

"Noting that there is continuous disregard of issues that we deem important and at the core of the coalition and that the board has increasingly overshadowed the powers and role of the institutional members. We, therefore, through this communiqué, individually and collectively withdraw our membership from the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition with immediate effect.

"Any future collective engagements will be determined by strategic national interests."

The Bulawayo organisations say they had raised their concern with CiCZ chairman Dewa Mavhinga, acting director Joey Mabenge and programmes manager Nixon Nyikadzino, but it seemed their concerns were being ignored.

Among the Bulawayo organisations' concerns were personality clashes within the organisation and lack of clarity between the roles of the secretariat and the board.

They also complained that a constitutional amendment was effected without the required quorum in contravention of the body's statutes.

"Instead, an Indaba was convened, made amendments and these were then ratified by the board without the participation of collective members, as provided for in the constitution," the organisations said.

They said they were concerned that the amendments "alienate the coalition from its founding principles and its institutional members".

The participating organisations are Bulawayo Agenda, Bulawayo Progressive Residents' Association, Christian Legal Society, Habakkuk Trust, National Youth Development Trust, Nhimbe Trust, Radio Dialogue, Women Institute for Leadership Development, Women of Zimbabwe Arise and Zimbabwe Christian Alliance.