LAST week the nation woke up to reports that USAID, a US government donor fund distribution channel, recently deployed an official to probe the organisation, Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition and other NGOs over allegations of misuse of funds and corruption.
The USAID, the core funders of the civil society representative body are ‘angry’ that the organisation awarded its three top officials huge salaries amounting to US$ 16 000 per month.

But America gave the money.
And the NGOs received and plundered the dollars, all in the name of fighting the Mugabe ‘regime’!
It is such a mess.
Yet President Mugabe today lives, stands tall.
There will be no tears shed for America’s looted money; neither will there be any need for the battery of NGOs that thrived on the mess Uncle Sam created in Zimbabwe.
The American foreign policy on Zimbabwe has been a disaster since it was launched.
And the backside of Uncle Sam’s meddlesome politics in Zimbabwe is now twitching non-stop.
After years of vehement protestations by Harare against the operations of American founded and funded NGOs, the chickens are coming home to roost in extraordinary fashion.
America wants its anti-Mugabe money back or accounted for .
America never hid the fact that it was funding NGOs to perpetuate the anti-Mugabe projects in Harare.
A few years ago, Washington also bankrolled the disgraced Archbishop Pius Ncube’s repeated travels around the world which had no financial implications to the local Catholic Church or the Vatican.
This was before they went public with their programme of destabilising Zimbabwe.
In its State Department report, Supporting Human Rights and Democracy: The US Record 2006, released in Washington DC on April 5 2007, the US proudly admitted to subverting President Mugabe’s Government, and to supporting the pposition (MDC).
It added:
“To further strengthen pro-democracy elements, the US government continues to support the efforts of the political opposition, the media, and civil society to create and defend democratic space and to support persons who criticise the Government (of President Mugabe).”
The report itemised the following US subversion:
Direct funding to the opposition MDC.
Direct funding to MDC- affiliated international and national NGOs.
Direct funding to human rights groups affiliated to the opposition.
Direct support to the labour union, ZCTU, from which the MDC emerged.
Direct funding to committees of parliament.
Direct funding to various forums critical of the government of Zimbabwe.
Hostile extra- territorial broadcasts targeting Zimbabwe through VOA’s Studio 7.
At the presentation of the study in Johannesburg (South Africa) in May, 2006, Tony Hawkins, a former University of Zimbabwe Economics lecturer and advisory figure for most scenario- building models on Zimbabwe, underlined both his expectations and frustrations:
“In political democracies, prolonged economic decline almost sparks political change, through the ballot box or more radical confrontation on the streets,” Hawkins said then.
American funding was also visible in the now infamous ‘Christian Alliance’ of 2007.
The Christian Alliance hosted both factions of the MDC, the NCA, ZCTU, Crisis Coalition in Zimbabwe, Women/ Men of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA/ MOZA), Zimbabwe National Students Union (ZINASU), Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, Zimbabwe Doctors for Human Rights, Media Alliance, and a whole battery of political NGOs.
America also sponsored the creation and funding of community newspapers in urban townships, especially in Harare, Kwekwe, Gweru, Masvingo and Bulawayo where opposition action was expected.
For rural areas, it sought to rely on its illegal broadcasts through its VOA Studio 7 station which came in to complement similar broadcasts from The Netherlands (Voice of the People and from the UK SW Radio).
The US Embassy funding of church institutions and figures included that of the Christian Alliance headed by Bishop Kadenge, and Archbishop Pius Ncube’s South African-based Solidarity Peace Trust.
The common elements across this vast welter of institutions were their shared parentage and funding.
Their brief was to isolate and oust President Mugabe from power before the 2008 harmonised elections.
An indicator of the rising Western belief in the inevitable success of his new strategy was a major prognosis published by Harvard’s African Policy Journal which projected the unseating of President Mugabe as foregone, urging the West to urgently prepare for a post- Mugabe era.
Titled ‘After Mugabe: Applying post- conflict recovery lessons to Zimbabwe’, the article, authored by two neo-liberal warrior policy advisor to the Bush administration, Todd Moss and Stewart Patrick, predicted ‘a major transition anytime’, with ‘change (coming) without much warning’.
Describing Zimbabwe as a ‘post- conflict situation’, the paper intimated that such preliminary preparations would be ‘catalytic’ to the transition itself.
The study was very clear in its advice to Western donors:
“No donors should provide assistance to the government (of Zimbabwe) at present time since recovery is impossible with the current leadership.”
But money was flowing to NGOs who duly helped themselves with it.
America carelessly embarked on this act, now it’s payback time.
Let those with ears listen.