Govt maintains tough stand on USAid
Govt maintains tough stand on USAidBy Paul Nkala
THE Government cut ties with New York State University which was sponsoring some Parliamentary reform programmes because it wants to tighten screws on clandestine political activities involving nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) which are meddling in the politics of Zimbabwe, a Cabinet Minister said yesterday.
Addressing a meeting of the Pelandaba/Mpopoma Constituency in Bulawayo, the Minister of Information and Publicity, Dr Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, said Government had terminated its Memorandum of Agreement with the university which was funding parliamentary programmes under the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
He said this was done after realising that USAID, which has a representative in Harare, was involved in covert activities to discredit the Government. “We noticed that USAID was being used by the United States of America government to sponsor certain antigovernment activities and that some of their members are actually members of the CIA,” he said amid applause from the crowd.
The move, Dr Ndlovu said, followed revelations by the United States Department of State that it was working with some portfolio committees, NGOs and selected media organisations to discredit the Government of Zimbabwe in pursuance of its regime change goals. He said Government was also concerned about the manner in which some portfolio committees were conducting themselves when dealing with certain ministers.
“We sat as Government and noted that the USA government was using clandestine means to destabilise our Government by purportedly supporting NGOs, education, humanitarian assistance just but to name a few. “To curb this, we as Government are now demanding that all NGOs operating in the country should reregister to make sure that they do their cobusiness that they would have come to do,” he said.
The minister encouraged people to report NGOs which overstepped their mandate by dealing in issues other than their cobusiness.
He said there were a number of NGOs which Government is closely monitoring but could not name them.
The USAID funded SUNY/Zimbabwe technical experts who work with portfolio committees on reforms which are owned and driven by the Parliament of Zimbabwe.
The Memorandum of Agreement, which was signed in the 1990s, was based on a Parliament of Zimbabwe programme to improve its effectiveness.
Said Dr Ndlovu: “Government has enough resources to support its programmes and we do not need any foreign support. The European Union, Britain and the United States of America have extended sanctions to the country with the aim of making the ordinary people suffer so that they revolt against an elected Government.”
He added that those who wanted to bring about regime change could “go to hell” and that the Government was prepared to defend itself since it came to power through a protracted liberation struggle.
He commended the people of Matabeleland in general and Bulawayo in particular for staying away from the socalled prayer meetings being organised by the opposition under the guise of the Bible.
He noted that the “prayer meeting” which had been called for Saturday went on undisturbed and commended Archbishop Pius Ncube for praying for peace in the country.
He, however, expressed surprise at the fact that the man of the cloth had not prayed for sanctions against the country to be lifted and that he did not pray for Mr Morgan Tsvangirai and Professor Arthur Mutambara of the MDC to desist from violent campaigns.
“It is interesting to note that when they advertised they were talking about a prayer meeting but somewhere in the advertisement they indicated that it would be a rally and went on to mention names of leaders in the opposition parties.
“If these are genuine prayer meetings to address problems in the country why not invite everyone, including the President who has to think about the plight of his people who are reeling under harsh economic conditions due to sanctions?” asked Dr Ndlovu.
He informed the meeting that Zanu PF had agreed to the harmonisation and synchronisation of the Presidential and Parliamentary elections to be held in 2008 and urged party members to start strengthening party structures now.
“What now remains is the legal basis for the harmonisation and synchronisation so that a Constitutional Amendment is made. The rural and council elections will come first and these will be used as a barometer to measure the strength of our party ahead of the presidential and parliamentary elections,” he said.
Dr Ndlovu said all political parties had already been given their monetary allocations under the Political Parties Act so as to enable them to prepare for the coming elections.
The Bulawayo provincial information and publicity secretary, Cde Effort Nkomo, told the meeting that there was a need to speedily restructure the party noting that District Three had already completed the restructuring of cells. The DCC will soon be moving to restructure the branches and then districts in preparation for the provincial elections to be held at the end of the month.
posted by MrK @ 3:43 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home