Political Reporter
The plot by Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) to meddle in the internal electoral processes of the country has been exposed with reports saying that the organisations are going around bribing traditional leaders so that they can compel their subjects to vote for the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) in next year’s Harmonised General Elections.
A source who spoke to this publication said that some NGOs and some Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) were dishing out cash to some selected traditional leaders in the Matebeleland region and telling them to convince their people to cast their votes for the opposition in the forthcoming elections.
“Some NGOs and CSOs in Matebeleland Region are behaving like CCC’s foot soldiers. They are going around bribing traditional leaders using money and some goodies and telling them to convince their subjects to dump the ruling ZANU PF party and vote for the opposition in next year’s elections,” said the source.
The source added that the NGOs were working with dethroned Matebeleland chief, Félix Ndiweni in selecting chiefs to work with
According to the source, the same NGOs were also giving money to some people in Matebeleland as incentives to vote for the opposition. The source added that these NGOs were desperate to see the downfall of ZANU PF, hence they are not hesitant to dish out money.
Political analyst, Terrence Chipwanya said NGOs and CSOs were continuously meddling in the internal electoral processes of the country which was outside their mandate. Chipwanya urged the Government to descend heavily on NGOs that have become political and cancel their operating licenses.
“NGOs and CSOs have no business in the electoral processes of the country. They should stick to their mandates and not interfere with the internal processes of the country. I urge relevant Government authorities to descend heavily on these rogue NGOs and cancel their licenses as they were now operating outside their mandate,” said Chipwanya.
Chipwanya further said that the meddling of NGOs in the internal electoral processes of the country wass worrisome considering that the same NGOs had a history of being foot soldiers of the opposition.
