THE negative ripple effects of the crushing defeat of the beleaguered MDC are now self evident in non governmental organisations.
Civil Society had been surviving through funding from the West on the grounds that it was working with the MDC to fulfill the regime change agenda.
This has dismally failed.
The July 31 fatal blow has seen donor funds drying up and NGOs responding by resorting to new strategies to justify their existence.
They realised that ZANU PF had won on the basis of their popular indigenisation policy and it is this policy they had to attack yet again to show that given sufficient funds, the revolutionary party could still be emasculated.
This gave room to a new spurious argument.
At a recent alternative mining indaba specifically for local NGOs, instead of describing the indigenisation policy as a ‘monster’ as they had always done, they now called it a legally ‘flawed’ document.
Surely this is the height of desperation.
Their argument, some rigmarole in which they are trying to clutch at straws, is conspicuously anachronistic.
For indigenisation is now in full swing.
Not only mining companies like Unki and Zimplats with some legal gurus of their own, but also other entities like Old Mutual and Delta have already shed some of their shares.
This is in line with the indigenisation policy crafted by legal experts, which was the hallmark of Team ZANU PF’s recent election campaign.
So the legal card these NGOs are trying to raise is invalid.
And contrary to the heresy being spread by civil society that only selected individuals were benefitting, the NGO indaba turned out to be another platform for the truth to be heard.
As can be testified countrywide, Chief Mapanzure gave an example of Zvishavane, where classroom blocks, clinics and boreholes had been constructed through community share ownership schemes.
These are tangible projects, which demonstrate the futility of trying to dismiss a noble cause.
But then this is not a new attempt by NGOs to try to earn their funding by misrepresenting facts about Zimbabwe.
We still remember very well how one of their kinds called Farai Maguwu was at the forefront in their attempt to have our diamonds excluded from the international market.
They are ‘bloody diamonds’, he argued in his desperate attempt on behalf of civil society to stop Zimbabwean indigenes from benefitting from their natural resources.
It might sound funny but these NGO leaders are Zimbabweans.
Their main concern, however, is to please Americans or Britons so long as it is the source of their sell-out funds.
But isn’t it high time they realised that they are fighting a losing battle in their treacherous missions.
Belgium has already broken ranks with Britain by forcing the European Union to lift sanctions on our diamonds, considered by civil society to be ‘bloody’.
This is soon after the NGOs have failed to help MDC win the July 31 election by demonising ZANU PF indigenisation policy
Maybe it is high time donors of these NGOs take a more hands on approach in supervising the operations of their civil society organisations.
We have already carried out stories of how these NGOs lie to their donors in order to get money purely for self aggrandisement.
The alternative mining indaba recently organised by civil society, could have been more useful if they had discussed how best they can help uplift the lives of Zimbabweans.
To instead concentrate on how best to have share ownership schemes declared unlawful is at best a waste of time and at worst downright foolishness.