AHEAD of a visit to Zimbabwe by United States (US) Secretary of State in the Bureau of African Affairs Mr Robert Scott next month, it has emerged that key American institutions that often interfere in elections in developing countries, have budgeted a staggering US$37 million to subvert this year’s harmonised elections.
Already, two NGOs —namely the Zimbabwe Election Support
Network (ZESN) and Election Resource Centre — have received US$537 500 and
US$577 500, respectively, from the United States Agency for International
Development (USAID) through the National Democratic Institute (NDI) to run a
parallel voter tabulation process which they call Sample Based Observation
during the full election cycle.
Insiders within the NGO sector where there is renewed
vigour and activities following indications that the US is dangling millions
for the polls, said there is massive lobbying and backstabbing to access the
prized money.
The insidious plot also exposes how local NGOs are now
going beyond their declared mandates and are not only meddling in local
elections with foreigners but also act as conduits of money laundering.
In the latest case, the NGOs, surreptitiously working with
foreign forces, seek to ultimately produce and announce the results of the
elections, specifically the presidential outcome, a day after the polls.
ZESN and ERC, which are at the forefront of the seditious
scheme, have budgeted to deploy 11 000 monitors.
Details gleaned from the ERC funding proposal show that
local NGOs are behind the treacherous plot and have already captured some
individuals in the election management system and plan an audacious capture of
the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission using the compromised officials.
“ . . . ERC has established strategic partnerships with
other stakeholders that allows the institution to get access to the voters’
roll, and this avenue will be explored in the event ZEC does not provide it
with the voters’ roll”.
The stolen voters’ roll will then be availed to shadowy
anti-Government organisations such as Pachedu and one Topper Whitehead.
In their covert operations, the two NGOs will directly
deploy 750 monitors for the parallel voter tabulation with the other 10 250
observers coming from CCC activists who would be embedded as election
observers.
The money that is already in ZESN and ERC coffers are drawdowns
from the US$37 million war chest that oppositional forces have budgeted and
that will be granted by hostile foreign governments following meetings that
were held in a neighbouring country.
At the first meeting, which took place between January 11 and
15 and was chaired by NDI senior advisor for Southern East Africa programmes,
Ms Traci Cook, in a neighbouring country, participants that included local NGOs
were assured of massive funding.
A follow-up meeting was held on January 11 between 2pm and
4.30pm at the US Embassy in Harare between USAID and NGOs that are referred to
as implementing partners (IPs).
The meeting was chaired by a senior USAID official Mr
Armando Baze who was accompanied by USAID staffers namely Ms Sharon Ndlovu, Mr
Lane Mears and Mr Timothy Salary.
NGOs represented at the meeting included Heal Zimbabwe
Trust, Accountability Lab, Crisis Coalition, Carter Centre, Veritas, East-West
Management Institute and the NDI, which was also representing ERC and ZESN.
At the meeting, Mr Farai Maguwu of the Centre for Natural
Resources Management and Mr Farai Mutondori of Zimbabwe Environment Lawyers
Association made a joint presentation where they pleaded with USAID for funds
towards anti-Government organisations, the source said.
“Officials from USAID indicated that various grants have
been approved by the US government through USAID for Zimbabwe’s elections. It
was also indicated at the meeting that USAID senior deputy administrator Megan
Doherty will be in the country to meet USAID implementing partners between
March 6 and 10.”
This is not the first time that the opposition has been
clandestinely working with hostile foreign nations, but it is its modus
operandi since its formation in 1999 at the behest of Americans and the
British.
While real and genuine NGOs have not raised alarm over the
imminent assent of the Private Voluntary Organisations (PVO) Bill by President
Mnangagwa, USAID and its local proxies have been predictably peeved and have
been desperately seeking to block its passage.
Unsurprisingly, at both meetings, effects of the PVO Bill
were also discussed with a view to determining whether funds would be
channelled to the local accounts of the so-called implementing partners or
through offshore accounts and then shipped to the country as cash.
The PVO Bill, which the President said is being tidied up
for his signature, is crafted to protect and defend the country’s sovereignty
from foreign interests, who have been using NGOs to infiltrate and destabilise
the country under the guise of helping the less privileged.
The new law, therefore, is expected to cure such
delinquencies by ensuring transparency and accountability. Herald
0 comments:
Post a Comment