by David Chandisaita
The influence of social media can no longer be ignored in the digital world. The deep under currents brewing in the sea of NGO illicit financial flows could have been triggered by an expose on Twitter by @OurZimOurPeople timeline.
In a series of tweets, the page exposed at length the scandalous misuse of donor funds by Heal Zimbabwe Trust (HZT). It even alleged that at one point, HZT directors were involved in a bare knuckle fist fight.
“War at Heal Zimbabwe over donor funds! They are supposed to be spearheading peace, but there was a brutal fist fight between the defacto director, Stabile Dhewa and dejure director Rashid Mahiya over control of resources at the NGO. Car windows and office windows were smashed, and Stabile sustained fractured skull and broken arm.”
Seeking closure on the matter on how donor funding was being misused, the page confidently alerted the responsible foreign organisations.
“If you are a donor and you have given Heal Zimbabwe money for monitoring and evaluation (M&E) and vehicle hiring, go and claim back your money, those things were never done at Heal Zimbabwe. There are five former Heal Zimbabwe employees who have been pushed out of the organization by Stabile Dhewa and Rashid Mahiya. They are disgruntled; some of them have even approached the courts.”
Being unequivocal in its expose, the @OurZimOurPeople continued, “There was a call for proposals released by @USAIDAfrica in April. Heal Zimbabwe applied and were assisted by Katema Katema (advisor 2 @nelsonchamisa) who still had inside information since he had recently been fired from USAID for corruption on grants allocation. He was paid $2000 for this by Heal Zimbabwe. Other NGOs have picked this up and are planning to stage a demonstration at USAID for the proposal to be recalled and the process to be restarted to ensure fair play.”
Yesterday the US Embassy could have finally given in and responded via the same microblogging site in a semi press statement.
“We remain committed to assisting the people of Zimbabwe, and invest millions of dollars each year to support a wide range of programs to benefit them. Attempts to divert U.S. funds from their intended use are unacceptable under any circumstances.
“Earlier this year, as a result of regular internal oversight, USAID became aware of the possible misuse of U.S. assistance funding. When USAID learned of the situation, an investigation was immediately launched and several issues were brought to light. Those issues have been dealt with accordingly.”
Some of the NGOs cited as the prominent culprits are Election Resource Center (ERC), Heal Zimbabwe Trust (HZT), ZimRights and Counseling Services Unit (CSU).
Not to be outdone @ZimMediaReview also accentuated how this scandal seemingly escaped the attention of some journalists.
“There’s a lot of corruption in the human rights NGO sector in Zim. Sadly many journalists have always looked the other way because they also benefit; trips, seminars, per diems, sponsorships.”
Pending the outcome of the investigations being carried by the US Embassy as indicated in its presser, the future of many NGO employees hangs on a thread.
