GOVERNMENT is keeping a close eye on Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) activities and will not hesitate to deal with those that divert from their functions and start to interfere in political processes, President Emmerson Mnangagwa has chillingly warned.
He said this while addressing the 363rd ordinary session of the Zanu PF politburo at the party Headquarters in Harare Wednesday.
“As the election season unfold, we are observing portable number of NGOs, diverting from their operational mandates to dwelling into political matters that amounts to interference in the internal affairs of our sovereign mother country,” Mnangagwa said.
“My government will not bring up such disregard for our laws and will proceed to deregister any organisation found in the wrong. Our party structures must be vigilante and expose such elements, part structures particularly the districts coordinating committees, office bearers in the business liaisons, the youths and women leaders secretariat from the same branch right up to the provincial level, in urban areas, growth points are called upon to implement robust organisation programmes to bring every urbanite to Zanu PF which is the home of the people’s revolution,” he said.
“I urge the party at every level to begin now to implement programmes and political messages that constantly reminds the people of the ballot box and the need to vote for Zanu PF, the revolutionary party that brought independence.”
Mnangagwa added: “We know their form, we know their agendas, strategies and their nature, detractors, sell-outs and their appendages must forever be silenced at the 2023 harmonised general elections.”
Mnangagwa also said that his party and government has implemented programmes that have changed the lives of ordinary people, riding on the rebound of our agriculture, mining and manufacturing sector.
“The overall rebound of our economy has been acknowledged and received good reviews from the IMF and World Bank. Unfortunately lone voices in the wilderness and individuals who always doom on our economy and the country, these personalities must be ignored with the hope that one day they too will see the light and acknowledge the truth and speak well over their own mother country.”
Mnangagwa’s warning comes at a time government has launched a massive crackdown on NGOs, with Harare Provincial Development Coordinator (PDC), Tafadzwa Muguti last month directing all those operating in the province to submit their work plans for the year 2021 to his office as they are now reporting to him.
They have however vowed to defy him.
Muguti’s Masvingo counterpart Jefta Sakupwanya has also ordered NGOs in the province to report to his office.
