Regular as clock work NANGO call "for dialogue on rule of law" N Garikai

The last two weeks have seen stay-aways to protests the soaring cost of living turn into street protests and looting. The Zanu PF government has, as expected, responded with an orgy of wanton violence; hundreds were arrested, hundreds of thousands were beaten up and/or raped and 25, according to some reports were shot dead. 

This is a regime that determined to the people complaining against rigged elections and the worsening economic meltdown at all cost, The populous are expected to suffer and die in silence like sheep in a slaughter house. 

Regular as clock work, the workshops (talk-shops really), reports, recommendations, etc. on the stay-away, street protests and orgy of violence from Zimbabwe’s bloated NGO community have started coming out. 

“In pursuit of a Zimbabwe people want, which is characterized by rapid and sustainable economic, social and political development underpinned by the rule of law, constitutionalism and unity, NANGO proffers the following recommendations for consideration:” said National Association of Non-Governmental Organisations (NANGO). There are so many NGOs is Zimbabwe NANGO is the official umbrella body of NGOs operating in Zimbabwe.

1. Call to candid, inclusive and open national dialogue: The mammoth task ahead of Zimbabwe on the economic, social and political sphere demands more structured multi-stakeholder collaborations and partnerships between government, business, non-state actors and citizens on actions and activities which are crucial in addressing challenges bedeviling the country. We urge President Emmerson Mnangagwa to expedite the national dialogue involving key political parties, civil society, churches to resolve a myriad of issues faced by the nation. 

2. Rule of law and constitutionalism: We implore the government to investigate murders, assault, torture and other human rights abuses that were reported and bring all perpetrators to justice.”

The report goes on to list 9 recommendations in total and all they usual platitudes. This is very predictable and monotonous to the point of foolishness! 

NANGO is one of the many who have been calling for “all stakeholders’ meeting” but will not say what what exactly must be discussed?  

NANGO says it wants “Rule of law and constitutionalism: We implore the government to investigate murders, etc., etc.” This is just a cliché. If these NANGO members were serious about wanting rule of law and constitutionalism then why have they done nothing to stop Zanu PF rigging last year’s elections in the first place or stopping the regime getting away with it.

By addressing this vote rigging and, per se, illegitimate Zanu PF regime as “the government” NANGO have tacitly accepted the regime as the de facto legitimate government. Zanu PF has never ever held free, fair and credible elections in the last 38 years and hence the reason why the nation is in this mess. And yet, even now with the nation up to her eyes in this economic and political nightmare we still have some people pretending they do not know what constitutes free, fair and credible elections!

The Zimbabwe we want will never come to pass as long as those calling for rule of law, etc. are only paying lip service to rule of law, etc. 

“Alive to the economic recession, coupled with governance deficit, impunity, social, economic and political exclusion that has seen the majority of the population particularly the marginalized susceptible to hunger, social dislocation of families, high levels of poverty, unemployment and underemployment, human rights violations as well as severe shrinking of NGOs' operating space,” NANGO pontificated. 

The truth is NGOs do not give a damn about the economic recession, the serious human rights violations, etc. Indeed, they have profited from all the economic and political mess. The madness and orgy of violence of the last two weeks have created thousands of man-years work for the NGO directors all paid for by naive and gullible but very generous donors! 

Corrupt and tyrannical regimes do NOT shrink NGOs’ operating space, they expand it. 

NGO and religion are the two social sectors which have grown in leaps and bonds in Zimbabwe in the last 38 years and the directors and the pastors are living in comfort and luxury, comparable to that of the political ruling elite and their cronies. 

NGOs and Churches are doing well thanks to the corrupt, tyrannical and dysfunctional political systems there is now a symbiotic relation between political and civic leaders. Many politicians have cultivated good relationships with church leaders with many a politician becoming church leaders in their own and church leaders have become self-appointed political commissars on root to a political career. Call it civic society and politics cross pollination! 

Whilst civic society may publicly criticise one side or, on very rare occasions, both sides of the political establishment, civic leaders know there are lines which they must never cross. Of all the country’s brigade of NGOs only the Catholic Church has dared to tell Zanu PF to its face that last July’s elections were rigged. 

And, as if to attorn for their honesty, the Catholic Bishop have been bending over backwards to underline they are NOT asking for Zanu PF to step down. They want the Zanu PF thugs to lead the national dialogue hopefully leading to a GNU in which Zanu PF will call the shots. 

Civic society has been divided along party lines with pro-Zanu PF church leaders like Wutaunashe taking up the party’s propaganda lie of blaming sanctions for the nation’s economic ills. He would never admit that corruption is the cancer killing the economy even after Mugabe confessed in 2016 to $15 billion in diamond revenue being swindled. 

Neither Mugabe nor his successor, Mnangagwa, have arrested even one swindler and there is every reason to believe the swindling is still going on to this day. No nation, much less one with a mere $10 billion GDP like Zimbabwe, can sustain a $15 billion haemorrhage. Wutaunashe and others will not even acknowledge corruption is a problem. 

Many NANGO members have remained doggedly faithful to MDC leaders, they have cheered and applauded the oppositions even when the latter failed to implement even one reform during the GNU, for example. 

Linda Masarira, a human rights activist turned politician, confessed of how the NGOs and the opposition worked together to falsified their activities to defraud the naive and gullible donors.

The mission statement of each and everyone of Zimbabwe’s army of NGOs, if they all had one, would claim they work to establish a free, just and prosperous Zimbabwe. The irony is Zimbabwe would have become a free, just and prosperous nations decades ago if those working in civic society had pay little more than lip service to their respective organisation’s mission statement to ensure their organisation remained relevant and to secure their own job. 

A politician’s job is never done, this is certain true of Zanu PF and MDC politicians. If we accept the vague definition of the politicians’ work of creating a free, just and prosperous nation, then Zanu PF politicians’ work load has increased 100 fold, at least. Compared to 1980 since the ordinary people have moved from third class citizen to serf whose freedoms and rights are not worth even the paper they are written on. 

On the economic front the country’s per capita GDP was US$ 942 in 1980 it dropped to a record low of $479 (or 2.7% of US) in 2008 and was $1268 (3.8%) in 2018. As we can see above, whilst the economic meltdown is getting worse, Zanu PF has given up all hope of an economic recovery and is retaining its iron grip of power by stepping up its political repression, instead. 

The need for democratic change in Zimbabwe is greater now than in 1999 when MDC was formed. The party has failed to implement even one democratic reform in the last 19 years. Not one. 

So both Zanu PF and MDC have their work cut out; so far, both have made things worse not better. The country’s civic society has grown and thrived to meet the demand born out of the politicians doing such a through job destroying the national economy and resorting to more and more barbaric measures to remain in power!