Forget NGO jobs, focus on Pfumvudza – Mutsvangwa
STAFF WRITER
Zanu PF has fuelled its backing of the Private Voluntary Organisations Amendment Bill saying those who will lose their jobs in the Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) due to the passage of the bill should turn to Presidential Pfumvudza/Intwasa programme or other mining production opportunities.
Zanu PF spokesperson Christopher Mutsvangwa described NGOs as “agents of foreign interests” bent on selling the country’s democracy.
He encouraged employees in the sector to “forget about these drone jobs which are there for subversion.”
A Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum and Southern Defenders and Accountability Lab report warned that about 18 000 jobs in the NGO sector would be lost if the Bill is passed into law.
“We have no lament for these 18,000 jobs. They must go. Because these are drone jobs. They champion things which have nothing to do with the day-to-day production of the Zimbabwean people. And what do they focus on? They focus on human rights, democracy, these things are not edible, they are intangible, they are only a yard stick of western countries to try and influence our country,” Mutsvangwa said on Wednesday.
Mutsvangwa said apart from the Presidential Pfumvudza/Intwasa programme, Zimbabwe’s plans to grow mining to a $12 billion industry by 2023 and is taking shape with the rolling out of a new multimillion dollar steel and ferro chrome project in Chivhu.
“Those who lament that their jobs are gone we tell them the President is providing endless opportunities through pfumvudza, through big investments – mining…the multiplier effect on mining alone will be huge,” Mutsvangwa said.
“….We want to make it clear as Zanu PF that we support the PVO Act, because per square of land, there is no country with as many NGOs as Zimbabwe. And what we call NGOs are only non-governmental to the government of Zimbabwe; they all belong to other governments of other countries. NGOs are supported in most instances by the budgets of Western Countries’ indeed they are what we call agents of foreign influence in our land.”
The Private Voluntary Organisations Amendment Bill seeks to amend the Private Voluntary Organisations Act.
Vendors Initiative for Social and Economic Transformation (VISET) and various activists oppose the passage of this bill primarily on the grounds that its provisions are an assault on personal freedoms as enshrined in the Constitution of Zimbabwe of 2013.
The bill is ostensibly premised on complying with recommendations made by the Financial Action Taskforce (FATF) on money laundering and terrorist funding, streamlining administrative procedures and regulation of PVOs and preventing PVOs from political lobbying.
“In all the instances given, the bill will give inordinate amounts of latitude to the Minister in determinations of what may be deemed to be violations or those that are suspected of potential breach to face sanction without so much as being favoured with a hearing, something which flies in the face of Section 68 that guarantees any persons a right to administrative justice,” VISET said.
“The proposed amendment is a further attack on guaranteed freedoms such as the right to freedom of association under Section 58, where the bill seeks to curtail the ability of PVOs to fundraise for their activities. PVOs and in particular VISET by the nature of its activities within communities has always upheld the principle of political neutrality as its members belong to different political parties and as part of our outreach maxim we believe ‘development knows no political affiliation.”
NGOs argue that the current national constitution provides sufficient safeguards against the three main provisions that the bill seeks to address.
