THE Zimbabwe Red Cross Society (ZRCS) management and former board have been accused of employing a number of dirty tactics and a host of other election rigging strategies to win elections that ushered a new board into office.
A new ZRCS
board led by David Chaliyanika was elected in December last year during the
organisation’s general assembly held in Kariba.
Other members
of the new board include Emmaculate Chuma (vice-president), Bennard Sharara
(vice-president) and Paradzayi Dakwa (honourary treasurer).
Chaliyanika
took over from Edson Mlambo, who allegedly masterminded his successor’s
victory.
Before winning
the top post, Chaliyanika had been serving as the ZRCS vice-president.
The election
was witnessed by the director policy, planning and international relations in
the Defence ministry Tendai Chilowa, who was representing Defence minister
Oppah Muchinguri Kashiri and International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)
head for southern Africa Jules Amoti.
International
Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies head of country cluster
delegation for Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi John Roche was conspicuous by his
absence.
However, before
the December general assembly, some ZCRS members had dragged the association to
the High Court seeking to stop the elections citing a number of irregularities.
In their court
application, they flagged massive abnormalities which they said were in
conflict with the organisation's constitution.
The disgruntled
members had wanted anomalies faced during the branch, district and provincial
elections addressed first.
The court,
however, advised them to seek redress through a normal court application and
allowed the General Assembly and elections to go ahead.
Chief among
their complaints was that the elections committee was not set up according to
Article 29.9 of the ZRCS constitution adopted in 2018.
Instead of the
24 members provided for in the constitution, the elections committee had only
six members — Barbra Chimboza (former
magistrate and committee chairperson), Elias Hwenga (ZRCS secretary general),
Wellington Magaya (ZRCS legal advisor, board member, ZRCS member of the
grievances and disciplinary committee), Lewis Banda, Fortune Musindo and Tendai
Chilowa from the Defence ministry.
“In any case
how does for example, the secretary general, Hwenga, who is the CEO and chief
accounting officer of the ZRCS become a member of the Elections Committee of
the same organisation he is in charge of,” an insider said.
“It, therefore,
means whatever election was conducted or authorised by this committee or its
representatives is a nullity.”
Insiders also
cited serious manipulation of the constitution by the elections committee,
which allowed a lot of members who did not meet the minimum requirements of the
constitution at branch, district and provincial levels to contest in the
elections.
It is said in
Mashonaland West province, for example, some members who made it to the
district executive do not meet the minimum requirements of the constitution.
“For example in
Kadoma, most of the district executive members are holders of village health
worker and nurse aid certificates,” sources said.
“In Hurungwe
district, only the chairperson and vice chairperson meet the minimum
educational requirements of the constitution.
“The others are
all holders of village health worker certificates.”
Article 33 of
the ZRCS constitution requires post holders at district, provincial and
national level to have a minimum of 5 'O' level passes and a national diploma.
The treasurer,
according to Article 27.2 should have a minimum of 5 ''O" levels and a
Diploma in Accounts or Finance related subjects.
Article 33 of
the constitution requires one to have been a member for 3 years to be a
district executive member.
“Some members
in some districts had fraudulent membership receipts that bear the stamp of the
ZRCS headquarters in Harare but are not signed by the officer who purportedly
received the membership fees in their branches and districts,” another source
said.
“The whole
process is said to have been flawed right from the appointment of the elections
committee and the whole election process in clear violation of the
constitution. “
Most members
who were elected from branches to the national level allegedly do not have the
required minimum qualifications.
Some are said
to have village health worker certificates, nurse aid certificates as their
highest qualifications.
“Some have only
a driver's licence while others have care giving certificates,” a source said.
This is against
the provisions of Article 33 which sets 5 "O" level passes and a
National Diploma as the minimum qualifications plus a minimum of two years
consecutive membership at branch level.
“We are taking
the issue to the parent ministry and our legal team is working on the
petition,” added the source.
“We have
overwhelming evidence against the SG and the former president which is in the
form of e-mails, documents, videos and audios.”
The Standard
established that Chaliyanika was pushed to take over the presidency since he is
from Binga and is not in the proximity to monitor operations at the
headquarters.
Mlambo on
Friday refused to comment about his alleged involvement in the rigging of the
elections when contacted for comment.
Hwenga did not
respond to questions sent to him. Standard
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