22 Jun 2018
The National Association of Non-Governmental Organisations (NANGO) has met commissioners from the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission (ZHRC) and National Peace and Reconciliation Commission (NPRC) at a time when preparations for the 30 July harmonised elections reach their peak. NANGO is mandated by its membership to coordinate the activities of NGOs, represent the NGO sector and strengthen the voice of NGOs in Zimbabwe.
The election environment continues to be highly polarised, intra and inter party political violence persist, there is an increase of human rights abuses, marginalisation and exclusion of women, youths and other vulnerable groups, lawlessness, disrespect for the sanctity of life, use of abrasive language, festering of conflict among different groups within society, unequal distribution of resources.
These critical issues, if unattended at this stage, will delegitimise everything being done by the civil society, non-state actors, government and commissions in ensuring that citizens freely support political parties and candidates of their choice without fear of harassment, threat or intimidation.
Through its ten sectors NANGO collated concerns and demands that were presented to the commissions. NANGO demands from all independent commissions a public strategy that ensures peace, tolerance, safety, security, upholding of human rights, and respect for the sanctity of life. NANGO recommends putting in place conflict indicators and early response mechanisms that ensure protection of the general citizenry ahead of the elections.
The commissions have a duty to defend the Zimbabwean Constitution and a mandate towards protection and promotion of human rights. NANGO implores the ZHRC to be proactive, and thoroughly investigate human rights violations, and recommend effect measures to promote human rights and freedom. To initiate a vigorous campaign to reach out to society, through CSOs, political parties, the police and other key stakeholders in human rights work.
The hostile political environment has directly and indirectly led to the disenfranchisement of women, youths and other vulnerable groups. This is further compounded by the legislative framework that objectifies these groups. Ultimately, women’s and youths’ participation in political party spaces or as the electorate is heavily compromised. In light of this, NANGO urges the NPRC to timeously intervene, and begin to exercise its independence in its operations, thus giving public confidence in the law and the commission.
All commissions are urged to promote and enforce good practices and ethics among political parties, monitor hate and abusive speech in the public interest to ensure fairness and diversity of views that represent the Zimbabwean society. NANGO also implores all commissions to speak out against exclusion and repression in order to uphold, promote and develop freedom of association and speech.
Following past injustices that have not been resolved which continue to hound and affect the citizenry in their daily interactions NANGO intreats the NPRC together with other independent commission to prioritise creating a sustainable people driven infrastructure for peace building.
A need has also been identified for independent commissions to put in place mechanisms and systems that enforce political tolerance at all levels of electoral process. This should be enforced within the existing legal frameworks and electoral guidelines espoused in the Electoral Act of Zimbabwe, the Constitution, regional and international best practices.
22 Jun 2018
Steward Bank donated food humpers and clothing to Methodist Caring Hand (MethoCare), a community based non-governmental organisation, during the organisation’s launch last Saturday 16 June 2018 at Methodist Church in Luveve.
The donations will go a long way in providing essential food and clothing to vulnerable children in Dundubala, a village on the outskirts of Bulawayo. The donated items included sugar, rice, cooking oil and mealie meal.
Speaking at the launch of MethoCare, Nonhlanhla Ncube, the Operations Supervisor at Steward Bank said, “It is an honour to contribute towards helping the less privileged and vulnerable members of our communities. As Steward Bank we are pleased to partner and to be working with MethoCare in making a difference in someone’s life.”
Ncube also asserted that Steward bank will be honoured to assist the organisation in their future activities.
“We are promising to be helping MethoCare in their future endeavours because each and every one of us has a social responsibilty role they have to play in helping vulnerable communities and contributing to the development of our communities.”
The Director of MethoCare, Revrend Tapiwanashe Marambi expressed gratitude over Steward’s Bank donation.
“We are extremely grateful for this substantial supplementary aid package and Steward Bank’s continued commitment to help societies and communities and may God bless them for the good work they are doing,” said Rev Marambi.
MethoCare also received praise from the guest of honour, Russel Mhlanga, the Director of Russ Glass and Alluminium.
He said,”I am greatly moved by your actions to try and change someone’s life in this deteriorating economy. I highly commend you for the compassion towards vulnerable children in our society.”
During the launch, it was highlighted that the organisation existed as a result of a family they saw in Dundubala which was struggling to cater for children’s basic needs. The organisation has since then aimed to assist as many children as they can within different communities in and around Bulawayo.
The organisation has pledged to provide children with food, clothes, school fees and stationery.
MethoCare said their vision was to spread love through giving, assisting vulnerable communities and to reducing poverty.
By Lovejoy Phiri, NANGO Western Region intern
22 Jun 2018
At a dialogue meeting hosted by Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) civil society concurred that there is grave need for a trauma-healing and rehabilitation framework, capacity building of stakeholders on peace building beyond elections, inclusion of the youth, people with disabilities, women and other marginalised groups as well as synergies between Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP), Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission (ZHRC) and the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission among other stakeholders.
These recommendations were made by young people, policy makers, political parties, academia, and civil society when the varying stakeholders met to discuss interventions for the delivery of a peaceful electoral process which is pertinent for the observation of human rights, peace and stability for the country.
Elections in Zimbabwe have been marred by violence. The 2013 elections as well as the by-elections that later followed had reports of violence. This past experience has led to a situation where various stakeholders are uneasy and on high alert. The identified drivers of Election-Related Violence (ERV) are; power as an avenue to wealth, intraparty conflicts, splits resulting in conflict that cascades down to supporters, uneven political playing field, skewed access to media and unfettered access to state resources. It has also been noted that sometimes violence is a function of ignorance and manipulation of people.
The youth that attended the meeting expressed concern over how ZRP are partisan and this hinders youth participation in elections as they are prone to violent attacks if they do not support the ruling party. Young people also requested for platforms of engagement between youth groups and the security sector.
In response ZRP officials that sat through the meeting said that the police operate in the spirit of the new dispensation and added that they are going through transformation that may take time.
A question was raised as to whether the low number of cases of pre-election violence reported to ZRP and ZHRC was a result accessibility or lack of trust in the two by members of the public. ZRP said often the case is that people find court processes to be time consuming while the ZHRC said they receive a higher number of reports through CSOs that they partner with.
Attendants at the meeting said the case of the two-year old boy, Professor Lumbe, who lost his life in Greendale, Mazowe North is not inspiring and reminded the officials from ZHRC and ZRP that Zimbabweans as a whole and the international community are watching how the gross human right violation will be handled and waiting for justice to take its course.
On 7 September 2017 ZESN created a similar platform that identified and profiled triggers of ERV, mapped out roles for mitigation, came up with policy frameworks and highlighted challenges to policies.
22 Jun 2018
Fifty Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) operating in Manicaland and eleven government ministries met with Minister of State for Manicaland Province, Hon. Monica Mutsvangwa on 15 June 2018 at the Mutare Queens Hall to deliberate with development partners on how to improve relations with government and identify windows of opportunity and collaborations.
Minister Mutsvangwa appreciated efforts by civil society organizations in the province and further reiterated Matsanga’s sentiments of the need for government to work hand in hand with civil society organizations. The Minister also noted how the Zimbabwe Women Parliamentarians benefited immensely through capacity building training and workshops facilitated by the Women Coalition of Zimbabwe, thus improving their conduct and operations within Parliament.
“There is need for partnerships and collaboration so as to learn international best practices that government should implement so as to uphold the rights of the citizens, adhere to good governance and democracy and eradicate poverty”, said Minister Mustvangwa.
She added that in the agricultural sector, possible areas of cooperation include introduction of sustainable smart agriculture led by new technology and research to enhance food security.
She acknowledged that although civil society has contributed much to the social services cluster, there is opportunity to improve ways to achieve gender equality and advocate against child marriages especially through sensitization of traditional leaders. She also spoke of how government has to assist and equip one-stop centers for victims of abuse.
The Minister reminded civil society organizations on how to operate within their mandates and follow laid out operational guidelines.
“Civil society should work with central, provincial and local governments so that both parties achieve the same goals of assisting the people. There should be transparency of civil society organizations in conducting their operations as this ensures that there are no unnecessary skirmishes between them and government. The new dispensation is about transparency and creating an ease of doing business.”
“Let bygones be bygones, the era of forcing civil society organizations close their operations during the election period has passed and is never coming back, therefore they should continue with their programs as planned but must adhere to the principle of championing peace in their areas of operations”, said Minister Mutsvangwa.
Simukai Executive Director and NANGO Eastern Region Chairperson, Barbra Matsanga, said it was important to highlight the role of government in such platforms.
She said, “There is need to reiterate the roles and responsibilities of government which is responsible for development initiatives and also creates an enabling environment for civil society to come in and compliment their efforts to achieve development goals.”
Matsanga further appealed to civic society organizations to register with apex bodies such as NANGO as it is important especially when it comes to disseminating information.
“Government needs to align and harmonize its laws, as this helps critical stakeholders who need assurance that there is a full realization of human rights, democracy, good governance, poverty alleviation and sustainable development”, concluded Matsanga.
14 Jun 2018
The Global Foundation of Public Speaking (GFPS) will be celebrating the Day of the African Child together with other developmental organisations in Zimbabwe and from around the African continent through its annual GFPS Kwanzaa tournament on 16 June 2018.
GFPS is an educational trust that grooms young people and imparts effective communication skills, develops self-directed learners and builds the capacity of students through public speaking centered activities.
Key stakeholders from corporate and donor organisations have come on board to support the GFPS Kwanzaa and to ensure that more than 1500 students benefit from this event. Participation is free and by invitation for the top debate and quiz secondary schools across Zimbabwe.
The Foundation is aware of the role young people are expected to play in national, continental and global issues as well as the capacity gaps that hinder them from doing so effectively. In light of this, GFPS has put together a highly competitive debate and quiz tournament known as the GFPS Kwanzaa so as to realise three main objectives. Firstly, creating a platform to groom effective young advocates to lobby for various social, cultural and economic issues that affect the success of the 21st century youth in Africa. Secondly, to raise awareness on the need for civic involvement from a young age on various national, regional and global issues. Lastly, to include the urgent need for financial literacy and financial inclusion of young people in the mainstream discussions and programming areas in academic circles.
Africa is widely regarded as an emerging market with many exciting opportunities in almost every economic sector. As a result, organisations like the African Union have identified the continent’s youths as a key stakeholder in unlocking Africa’s success through strategies like tapping into the demographic dividend agenda.
Schools and institutions that wish to participate can request an invitation letter to be sent to them before 15 June 2018.
Any individuals or organisations that wish to be involved in the GFPS Kwanzaa in any way can reach out to the Debate and Quiz Administrators on debate@gfps.co.zw and quiz@gfps.co.zw or 08644 145 078 and 0716 042 377.
10 Jun 2018
The Albino Trust of Zimbabwe will be commemorating International Albinism Awareness Day with the official opening of a special needs resource centre on 13 June 2018 at its Borrowdale offices.
Visual impairments of people with albinism hamper their access to information. Most information of public interest is in print and not braille. The Albino Trust of Zimbabwe realises that poor access to information impacts negatively on academic performance and employment of people with albinism.
Ending poverty through self-sustainability has been on the centre of the organisation’s goals. The Albino Trust of Zimbabwe encourages use of Information Communication Technology (ICT) that enables people with disability to read and work independently without challenges. Currently the organisation is working on exposing its beneficiaries to a computer software called JAWS in a bid to promote access to information and the internet.
The resource centre bridges lack of knowledge and skill of using computers and will also be a platform to train teachers that work with students with disabilities and other special needs.
The Albino Trust of Zimbabwe looks forward to running a project where there will be installation of at least one computer with JAWS in every school as part of inclusive education.
The guest of honour for the event will be the Minister of ICT and Cyber Security, Supa Mandiwanzira and members of the public and private sector are also invited to attend.
10 Jun 2018
Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and Faith Based Organisations from Zimbabwe, Kenya, Burundi and Togo converged at Holiday Inn in Harare to reflect on the religious mandate of churches, strengthen capacity of churches and provide a platform for learning and best practice.
The National Association of Non-Governmental Organisations (NANGO) Programs Manager, Nomaqhawe Gwere presented on the cross-pollination model which entails reflection from the Church and Civil Society Forum (CCSF).
CCSF is a coalition of the church and civil society and has a desire to see a peaceful Zimbabwe. It was born after a realization that since independence the church has been active in peace building and conflict prevention and CSOs also were needed to share results and problems. It was formed in 2015 and it comprises 28 stakeholders. The approach was to work on behaviour and attitude change programmes, evidence-based lobby and advocacy and conflict prevention, management, resolution skills development to bridge capacity gaps in peace building.
The overall objectives of the forum are training and building the capacity of traditional, religious, political, youth leaders to hold sustained dialogue, speak louder and more coordinated with regards to conflict prevention, research and documentation, evidence-based lobbying and against violence.
Gwere said, “CCSF has managed to advocate for a local and national level mechanism for violence prevention and promotion of community cohesion and has identified and strengthened local mechanisms for violence prevention. CSOs and FBOs have learnt that peace is not just a gift to be received but a task to be performed. In our diversity lies our strength of comparative power.”
On capacities critical for sustaining peace, reconciliation and understanding peacebuilding initiatives Bishop Ambrose Moyo, the Executive Director of Ecumenical Church Leaders Forum (ECLF), said churches need to seriously take social responsibility in social, economic and political issues.
He added that “There is need to design a peace-building programme that would heal the people to transform the mind and heart and change mind-sets. Transform hearts to the values of love, justice, peace, reconciliation, compassion to restore Ubuntu, and the need for an all-inclusive program. There is a need for reflection and Christians have to risk being misunderstood.”
ECLF is a peacebuilding forum and an initiative of church leaders.
In his conclusion, Bishop Moyo said that there is need to invest in peace by giving people peace, and peace brings development, a dialogue is necessary and it must be preceded with healing and the need to capacitate the community with skills to produce sustainable peace.
Thomas Kagwe Mbugua presented on lessons from Kenya. He pointed out that Kenya experienced 2007 post-election violence where there were human rights violations, deaths, and injuries. The Kenya National Dialogue and Reconciliation Commission was formed to stop violence, take measures to address the humanitarian crisis, to precede the formation of a power-sharing government to overcome political crisis and to come up with long-term solutions such as constitutional, institutional and legal reforms.
“The commission sought to identify constitutional, legislative and institutional reforms, make bold declarations and propose robust reparation in Kenya. Its weaknesses include making recommendations that did not follow from findings, some violations were more comprehensively investigated than others, the commission was unable to identify victims in many cases, the conduct of some Commissioners undermined the credibility of the report and there were no linkages to current reform processes”, said Mbugua.
Jean-Louis Nahimana presented on lessons from Burundi. He said Burundi has known a lot of tribal violence with great impact on the socio-political situation. There have been clashes that led to massacres in 1962,1965,1969,1971,1972,1982,1991 and 1993.The 1993 crisis resulted in the assassination of the president by the army and this caused a lot of hysteria and marked an increase in ethnic conflict.
“Burundi wanted to begin a Truth and Reconciliation Commission as a mechanism to consolidate peace. The church was to play an important role in peace building”, said Nahimana.
The commission in Burundi sees the importance of the church in peace building. In June 2006, the president met religious leaders and asked them to put in place the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, from this the church realized its role and put in place campaigns and initiatives. In 2007 the United Nations asked the government of Burundi to include four church leaders in the 12 men commission and it was officially recognized in 2008. In May 2008, a council of Inter religion was put in place and is composed of the National Council of churches in Burundi and it included Muslims and Catholic priests and it was meant to come up with strategies for peace. The church came up with strategies for dialogue and collaboration.
250 religious leaders are carrying out peace projects whose first phase is awareness programmes and the second is operational activities of the commission.
On lessons from Togo, Nicodeme Barrigah narrated that in 2006 a year after the death of a long-standing leader, all political actors met in Ouagadougou and put in place a Global Political Agreement, where there was a request for a commission.
Togo’s 2006 elections were violent and a commission was set up to investigate political issues from 1958-2005 and there could only be conditional amnesty.
Barrigah asserted that “The commission began work in 2009 and it was made up of church leaders and the members from CSOs, human rights defenders. It was mandated to investigate and bring an end to violence, propose transitional justice, compensation and a mechanism to avoid mistakes of the past (review the constitution, reform the constitution, reform within civil society. The strategy was to make investigations, report, and recommendations, public hearings, consultations and make a database of the 22 415 victims.”
Results include relative calm socio, political and economic, institutional reforms, compensation and rehabilitation of victims, report, constitution now has better protection, mediation, and facilitation of human rights, freedom of speech and 68 recommendations were made.
“The weaknesses are that there is still a lack of confidence, lack of funding, political blockage, selective recommendations and blockage in parliament. The commission was created to bring peace and now it’s in the reconciliation phase”, he added.
He said that lessons learnt include that TRC is one of the steps of a process and added that sometimes a nation can be misled to think that the TRC will solve all their problems. There is need for a phase of preparation for the commission to operate effectively and there is no need for violations of human rights. He said that the TRC process cannot be a success and desired results are not achieved if perpetrators do not cooperate fully and without political will.
The meeting was meant to support the peace and reconciliation process in Zimbabwe and Africa using the agency of the church. The church is neutral and has moral integrity and it goes beyond the law.
10 Jun 2018
The Executive Director of the National Association of Non-Governmental Organizations (NANGO), Leonard Mandishara attended the Budget Transparency Stakeholders’ Workshop in South Sudan from 6 to 11 June 2018.
As part of his presentation, Mandishara highlighted challenges encountered in Zimbabwe seeing as the Open Budget Survey (OBS) is a new process in the country.
With regards to budget transparency in Zimbabwe there has been limited cooperation from the key institutions, ignorance of the process and what it measures, lack of appreciation of the key facets of the survey, government peer reviewer response low and produced documents were not shared publicly.
As a result, out of 100 Zimbabwe’s score was 20, 35 and 23 in 2012, 2015 and 2017 OBS, respectively.
According to analyses by NANGO, the significant drop in 2017 compared to 2015 was due to comprehensiveness of Executive Budget Document, failure to publish other documents such as Citizen Budget and Year End Report and late posting of documents on government websites.
Mandishara asserted that following the mentioned issues, NANGO and UNICEF engaged the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development in view to improve budget transparency.
“Positive relationship and collaboration between stakeholders is key for improved OBS, government departments, parliament, supreme audit and civil society as well as the researcher,” said the NANGO executive director.
He added that commitment by all key government institutions is now very high, reform matrix was developed to address gaps, personnel with appropriate experience were attached to the process and NANGO was tasked to continuously engage institutions.
Civil Society can further contribute to government budget reforms as researchers, through collaborations, playing the watchdog role on budget processes, build capacity of key government institutions and lead the sensitization process, engage consistently throughout the entire budget process, liaise with the tasked researcher, educate the public on budget processes to raise the demand side as well as carry out analysis of the budget to inform policy makers.
3 Jun 2018
National Association of Non-Governmental Organisations (NANGO), Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum and Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) on 31 May and 1 June 2018 capacitated 80 representatives from Masvingo and Manicaland civil society organisations, respectively, on the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) processes.
Representatives of Masvingo CSOs concurred that with regards to issues of national interest like human rights it is important for civil society organisations to speak with one voice. CSOs were urged to meaningfully participate in the UPR process, mobilize and ensure wide participation of key stakeholders during national consultations, ensure that government identifies all relevant stakeholders and partners with them, collaborate and monitor independent commissions and raise awareness, monitor and audit compliance by government with the UPR recommendations among other equally imperative roles.
The leadership from Manicaland appreciated the fact that CSOs are directly in touch with community members who are often the victims of human rights violations. Through this direct contact these CSOs are best positioned to express the concerns of citizens. Civil society was urged to take advantage of their position and produce a shadow report for lobby and advocacy and to make contributions through reporting on the state of human rights in their communities.
As part of their watchdog role, CSOs will mobilise and ensure wide participation of key stakeholders such as marginalized groups which include people with disabilities, youth, children and women at various UPR consultations.
During the trainings organisations from NANGO’s children, youth, women, disability, economic, humanitarian, human rights, arts and culture as well as land and environment, health, HIV and AIDS clusters identified roles that they can play with regards to the UPR process and seeing to the implementation of recommendations made by other states.
With support from the United Nations Country Teams, the government analyzed and clustered recommendations, with a view of identifying priority issues and coming up with a National Plan of Action (NPA) for the implementation of the recommendations. The NPA distributes tasks among government ministries and departments and identifies the lead ministry or department for each action while stakeholders identify their role and come up with activities to support the implementation of the recommendations
Government and stakeholders adopted the NPA for the implementation of the UPR recommendations and created a monitoring mechanism, the UPR Steering Committee. The UPR Steering Committee is composed of government and stakeholder representatives, including CSOs. NANGO, the NGO Forum and ZLHR sit in the steering committee.
NANGO is mandated by its membership to coordinate the activities of NGOs, represent the NGO sector and strengthen the voice of NGOs in Zimbabwe. NANGO has taken on board the strategic objective of strengthening the voice of NGOs which speaks to the organisation’s role as the representative institution of the sector to government, the private sector and other stakeholders. In due course the conceptualisation of this mandate has metamorphosed in response to the demand for NANGO to operate at the helm of civil society through the coordination of various civil society responses to emerging issues in Zimbabwe. While playing the role of coordinating, NANGO does not only represent the interests of the NGO sector but also mobilises the sector to speak on critical issues and in speaking to formulate consensus based pragmatic responses to emerging issues.
3 Jun 2018
On Africa Day Nqobile Masuku Foundation donated wheelchairs, 100 crutches and 120 white canes to people with disabilities in Bulawayo.
The Executive Director of the Foundation, Nqobani Masuku, said he had always been moved by those people with disabilities who seemed to be neglected in societies and his dream was to help them so that they can actively and meaningfully participate in community development.
He said, “The reason we are donating wheelchairs, crutches and white canes is to allow people with disabilities to be active people in society and for them to be able to move from one place to another without any difficulties.”
The event was graced by the Minister of State for Bulawayo Province, Angelina Masuku who complimented the work of Nqobile Masuku Foundation stating that it was admirable for them to intervene in helping people with disability.
“We have to learn from this organisation that giving to the less fortunate is an important thing to do in our societies. We have to learn from their work that they are doing considering the difficulties in our country”, said Masuku.
The Mpopoma-Pelandaba Member of Parliament, Joe Tshuma was in support of the goodwill expressed by the Foundation as he praised their work. He applauded the organisation for taking such a drastic measure in helping the deprived in our societies.
“What Nqobani Masuku Foundation has done is very commendable and we should all be inspired, it is good to help people who are underprivileged,” Tshuma said.
The Councillor of Ward 13 Pelandaba, Lot Siziba was also at the Youth Arena and he described the work of Nqobani Foundation as masterclass.
Siziba said, “It is pure masterclass to see a young man such as Nqobani and his team do such amazing work. We would like to thank also Maternity and Newly Born Care and Mamio for assisting the foundation make this event a success.”
In addition, Anorld Munyikwa, a board member of the Bulawayo Disabled Development Trust thanked the foundation for helping his organisation’s beneficiaries.
One of the beneficiaries is a 11-year-old boy, Olert Nyoni, who has had to be carried by his mother Pretty Nyoni as they could not afford anything to aid his mobility.
Nyoni told NANGO Western Region staff that Olert has struggled to assosciate with his peers because he cannot play with other kids. She said she has always been pained to see the limitations that come with her son’s condition.
“Olert has been on a wheelchair for six years and he has never walked on his own because I could not afford to buy him crutches. We will always remember this moment because now he can learn to walk on his own,” Nyoni said.
Olert is among people with disabilities who benefited from the genorisity of Nqobile Masuku Foundation at Youth Arena Centre in Pelandaba.
According to the beneficiaries at the event, the donation of assistive and mobility devices by the Foundation has come as a divine intervention to them as they were facing challenges of moving around without assistance from their loved ones.
Siphathisiwe Nyathi, from Lobengula has had to be guided by her daughter at all times and was very grateful to receive a white cane as it allows to move around independently.
Nyathi commended the donation saying it was a breakthrough for visually impaired members of society and a big relief to many beneficiaries who could not afford these mobility devices.
A man who identified himself as Dixon Mudimba said words could not express his happiness after he was given a pair crutches, replacing his wooden hand-made cane.
By Lovejoy Phiri, NANGO Western Region
