Opinion / Columnist
Mawarire, CSOs fleece naive donors
03 Feb 2017 at 09:57hrs | Views
While it is on record that yester year Civil Society Organizations (CSO) and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) focused more on 'developmental' and 'welfare' issues, the current adopted a paradigm shift, - that of dabbling into politics which has always been prejudicial to the country.
Past elections gave birth to politically affiliated civic organizations - the Human Rights Forum; Women's Coalition of Zimbabwe; National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), and the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN), Crisis Coalition, among many others.
Likewise the forthcoming 2018 election is no exception, as recent developments suggest sprouting of civic organizations, with mercenary individuals seeking to capitalize on this occasion to fatten their pockets.
Failure by funders to draw the line between those in need of a helping hand and profiteering conman has given birth to a new crop of avaricious individuals intending to ride on the politics ticket - Occupy Africa Unity Square, #Tajamuka, and recently the nation witnessed the launch of National Association of Youth Organization (NAYO) and SheVotes2018.
The quest to brainwash the electorate remains at the core of most individuals and civil society organizations, with the hope of destabilizing the government.
Diverse active civics groups in range from residents' associations and student groups to think-tanks and trade unions hide behind the civic group finger, when all they seek is a money making ploy.
As long as funders continue giving financial aid without proper mechanism of monitoring they will continue pouring their funds in a bottomless pit and this season of the pre-elections will only witness proliferation of these briefcase civil society organizations e.g. election monitoring, political violence monitoring, corruption monitoring etc.
Not to be outwitted, the clergymen have equally board ship, ludicrously exposing their political motives, guised in serving their congregants whilst leaving them spiritually starved. Pastors Evan Mawarire and Phillip Mugadza has been a nuisance of themselves with false prophecies and flopping demonstrations.
Mawarire's quest for relevance and solace continues to rock the country ahead of the 2018 elections with the man of the cloth's recent 'homecoming', disguising his true political aspirations.
The pastor nicodemously slipped out of the country six months ago, only to resurface this week, fully aware of what awaited him 'home'(as he call it), given the circumstances underlying his departure from Zimbabwe to the United States.
Unfortunately ingenuous Mawarire engulfed in his quest for relevance failed to calculate his moves, and anticipated a 'triumphal entry' into the country from congregants and supporters, hence the premeditated interview in South Africa to alert 'his' followers of his return. Little did he realize that his political fireworks subsided a long time ago and crumbled the minute he board a plane to the United States.
And now that the law has descended upon him, Mawarire wants to cry foul? NO! He should play the music to the finale, after all, "Ateya mariva murutsva haachatyi kusviba mhapa."
In his interview in SA, he claimed that he feared for his life, why then risk it by walking into the lion's den.
Clearly, Mawarire knows what he is doing. He merely came back to cause anarchy again considering his waning popularity among Zimbabweans with the hope of attracting sympathizers and eventually paymasters.
Sadly for him, he won't get the satisfaction of magnetizing previous crowds or to draw up 100 human rights lawyers queuing to represent him like before, all have fizzled out.
Political "messiah" Mawarire is merely another project meant to milk the international donor community of funds, by attempting to be an agenda-setter for Zimbabweans like what he once achieved, but honestly Zimbabweans can't be fooled twice.
The guy instantly abandoned his savior mission the minute the seat got too hot for him, and took his family 'home.'
The major challenge confronting Zimbabwean messiahs is their inability to be autonomous as they all rush to seek international recognition before they have even achieved anything.
Instead the aim is never to achieve anything really, but to attract persecution, get funding, and their mission is complete.
NAYO is yet another mushrooming youth organization intending to mobilize youths to go and vote in 2018 running under the banner #LeaveNoYouthBehind 2018. So is SheVotes2018, another organization operating in the ambits of Women4Women intending to mobilize young women to vote in 2018; surprisingly the think tanks behind these projects are disgruntled people who have already made little impact on the political arena representing opposition politics.
For the international community, is it an issue of donors not minding their monies being extorted in broad daylight towards individual pockets or it is their way of nursing their egos hoping for their regime change dream to be realized one day.
The most tragic reality for Zimbabweans is our inability to be independent from international donors; enjoying meaningful autonomy in terms of crafting our own agenda, the agenda which should be anchored in our own domestic issues, hopefully donors will wake up to smell the coffee soon before their pockets run dry.
Past elections gave birth to politically affiliated civic organizations - the Human Rights Forum; Women's Coalition of Zimbabwe; National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), and the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN), Crisis Coalition, among many others.
Likewise the forthcoming 2018 election is no exception, as recent developments suggest sprouting of civic organizations, with mercenary individuals seeking to capitalize on this occasion to fatten their pockets.
Failure by funders to draw the line between those in need of a helping hand and profiteering conman has given birth to a new crop of avaricious individuals intending to ride on the politics ticket - Occupy Africa Unity Square, #Tajamuka, and recently the nation witnessed the launch of National Association of Youth Organization (NAYO) and SheVotes2018.
The quest to brainwash the electorate remains at the core of most individuals and civil society organizations, with the hope of destabilizing the government.
Diverse active civics groups in range from residents' associations and student groups to think-tanks and trade unions hide behind the civic group finger, when all they seek is a money making ploy.
As long as funders continue giving financial aid without proper mechanism of monitoring they will continue pouring their funds in a bottomless pit and this season of the pre-elections will only witness proliferation of these briefcase civil society organizations e.g. election monitoring, political violence monitoring, corruption monitoring etc.
Not to be outwitted, the clergymen have equally board ship, ludicrously exposing their political motives, guised in serving their congregants whilst leaving them spiritually starved. Pastors Evan Mawarire and Phillip Mugadza has been a nuisance of themselves with false prophecies and flopping demonstrations.
Mawarire's quest for relevance and solace continues to rock the country ahead of the 2018 elections with the man of the cloth's recent 'homecoming', disguising his true political aspirations.
The pastor nicodemously slipped out of the country six months ago, only to resurface this week, fully aware of what awaited him 'home'(as he call it), given the circumstances underlying his departure from Zimbabwe to the United States.
Unfortunately ingenuous Mawarire engulfed in his quest for relevance failed to calculate his moves, and anticipated a 'triumphal entry' into the country from congregants and supporters, hence the premeditated interview in South Africa to alert 'his' followers of his return. Little did he realize that his political fireworks subsided a long time ago and crumbled the minute he board a plane to the United States.
And now that the law has descended upon him, Mawarire wants to cry foul? NO! He should play the music to the finale, after all, "Ateya mariva murutsva haachatyi kusviba mhapa."
In his interview in SA, he claimed that he feared for his life, why then risk it by walking into the lion's den.
Clearly, Mawarire knows what he is doing. He merely came back to cause anarchy again considering his waning popularity among Zimbabweans with the hope of attracting sympathizers and eventually paymasters.
Sadly for him, he won't get the satisfaction of magnetizing previous crowds or to draw up 100 human rights lawyers queuing to represent him like before, all have fizzled out.
Political "messiah" Mawarire is merely another project meant to milk the international donor community of funds, by attempting to be an agenda-setter for Zimbabweans like what he once achieved, but honestly Zimbabweans can't be fooled twice.
The guy instantly abandoned his savior mission the minute the seat got too hot for him, and took his family 'home.'
The major challenge confronting Zimbabwean messiahs is their inability to be autonomous as they all rush to seek international recognition before they have even achieved anything.
Instead the aim is never to achieve anything really, but to attract persecution, get funding, and their mission is complete.
NAYO is yet another mushrooming youth organization intending to mobilize youths to go and vote in 2018 running under the banner #LeaveNoYouthBehind 2018. So is SheVotes2018, another organization operating in the ambits of Women4Women intending to mobilize young women to vote in 2018; surprisingly the think tanks behind these projects are disgruntled people who have already made little impact on the political arena representing opposition politics.
For the international community, is it an issue of donors not minding their monies being extorted in broad daylight towards individual pockets or it is their way of nursing their egos hoping for their regime change dream to be realized one day.
The most tragic reality for Zimbabweans is our inability to be independent from international donors; enjoying meaningful autonomy in terms of crafting our own agenda, the agenda which should be anchored in our own domestic issues, hopefully donors will wake up to smell the coffee soon before their pockets run dry.
Source - Rungano Dzikira
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