Panic grips govt

…As NGOs rule the roost in rural areas

PHILLIMON MHLANGA

Government has accused the non- governmental organisations (NGOs) of getting involved in politics using food distribution to fuel regime change, Business Times can report.

The NGOs, government officials said, were gaining much ground, having been distributing food to wider areas across the country.

But, President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s administration is accusing them of meddling in politics.

Fearing that the NGOs were funding programmes to fuel anarchy in the country in a bid to overthrow the government, the administration has resolved to clip the NGOs’ wings.

Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Ministry permanent secretary, Simon Masanga last week told a food deficit mitigation strategy meeting held in the capital, which was attended by the provincial executives, and several government officials, that a new Masterplan was being reconstituted.

Several government officials also spoke strongly against the NGOs.

He said the grain distribution to vulnerable households should be stopped immediately and a new master plan should be developed.

Government said it wants to better coordinate the food distribution exercise with its development partners. They said the new strategy will deal with the problem of double-dipping, over feeding and channeling resources to wrong beneficiaries.

Government has been waiting for the 2021 Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee (ZIMVAC) report. ZIMVAC is a grouping of representatives from government, the United Nations, civil society organisations and technical agencies working in collaboration with the World Food Programme.

But the new strategy, Masanga said, should go ahead even before the ZIMVAC report was finalised. The ZIMVAC assessment was supposed to inform the retargeting programme, which was recently approved by Cabinet.

“Let’s go ahead even without the Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee survey results. Let us control the areas where they [NGOs] have been going. Let us go and do what they have been doing,” Masanga said.

Government has also threatened to de-register the civic organisations saying they were not legally allowed to engage in politics.

It is understood that more than 735 000 vulnerable households have been receiving food handouts every month in the country.

Recently, the Minister of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Minister, Paul Mavima said the master plan register to draw beneficiaries was not in place. He said it last existed in 2015, meaning the government and its partners were using different beneficiary registers as opposed to using one master register.

He said there was a need to retarget eligible beneficiaries.

Mavima also confirmed that the distribution of grain is being stopped to allow the retargeting exercise to be conducted.

This, he said would reduce unnecessary costs and is also premised on the successful 2020-2021 cropping season.