COMMENT: Genuine NGOs must not be afraid

• Published date: 05 March 2023
• Publication title: The Sunday News

PRESIDENT Mnangagwa has reiterated that bona fide non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have nothing to fear and that they will continue with their Godly work and vocation by serving the needy and the poor, thus augmenting the many safety nets which Government put in place and continues to finance for the benefit of the vulnerable and the less privileged in our immediate communities and in our broader society.

In addition, organisations involved in genuine advocacy work will not be affected by the Private Voluntary Organisation (PVO) Bill which will be signed into law by the President soon.

'The new law allows them to raise awareness and arouse the collective conscience of our society on those rights and interests we must never overlook; rights and interests we must seek to safeguard and protect at all times. Indeed, any society, ours included, is as humane and as compassionate as it treats and provides for its needy, weak and vulnerable,' said the President in his weekly column in this paper last week.

President Mnangagwa said; 'the PVO Bill has passed the various stages of the legislative process. It is now being cleaned up for my assent. I will sign it into law once it reaches my desk.

Thereafter, Zimbabwe will enter a new era of genuine philanthropic and advocacy work, unsullied by ulterior political or financial motives. This has been our goal as Government in drafting such a law. To protect our society, specifically the needy and the vulnerable against the greed, wiles and subterfuges of the crooked, found both here at home and abroad.'

The majority of NGOs in the country and Africa at large have been accused of meddling in politics and fighting governments. The have been accused of being champions of the 'shock doctrine'

'The shock doctrine' is the influential but little understood theory that in order to push through profoundly unpopular policies that enrich the few and impoverish the many, there needs to be some kind of collective crisis or disaster - either real or manufactured. A crisis that opens up a 'window of opportunity' - when people and societies are too disoriented to protect their own interests - for radically remaking countries using the trademark tactic...