During that period, His Excellency spoke about his visions. He reminded us what he had promised in 2018 on June 21 and also we agreed that some of the issues were moving and they were being dealt with. Having said that, we appear to be having a challenge that some of the Cabinet Ministers and Senior Government officials within the Cabinet or within Zimbabwe, appear to be sabotaging the intentions and visions of His Excellency.
The President says this and you go to those officials and you find people are behaving in a different manner. I think Government should take note of that. For example, when these monies which are given to disabled people, we have talked about some people in remote areas like Beitbridge, Plumtree, Mutoko and Muzarabani. I was in Muzarabani last month and also in Mudzi with these Budget Consultations. I discovered that in many areas there is no network and the money goes through the network. Those people are not getting that fund and Government had said okay, this is money but within the officials nobody is taking heed and nobody is taking action.
I think it is very bad and action needs to be taken. His Excellency also talked about some Bills which are going to be presented and he talked about the PVO Bill. I want to say sometime around 2005 – 2008, I am not sure, but I was also one of the board members with the Private Monitoring Act which was elected through that PVO Act. I can declare without any hesitation that Zimbabwe registrations of civil organisations is the easiest you can get anywhere.
I am a member of the Southern African Federation of the Disabled (SAFOD). Many countries are crying that their governments are not registered but in our country, if you satisfy certain conditions that you are not a criminal, you think that things are okay and your I. D. is there, you are mature and over 18 years and you want to use this organisation to push for development – it becomes easy for you to do that. I also know in this regard and that is why I want to support the intention to amend the PVO Act – that some people are using the registrations to push for some sinister agenda.
They have formed some organisations and they call them PVOs, Civil Society Organisations, churches – not all of them of course, some under traditional communities yet if you look at some of them, you find that they are simply tribalistic organisations formed to push for a tribal agenda or some agendas you may not understand. When the Bill comes here, people will have the opportunity to take what is right out of the present Act and throw away that which is not right. I think I support that the Bill be amended.
There is also the question of corruption. It looks like instead of corruption being reduced, it is actually becoming a nation on its own. If it was a person, we would say corruption is now ugogo, mbuya or sekuru. It now has grandchildren and great grandchildren. It is still giving birth to some siblings and if we allow it to go on like that, it will not end. The only challenge which I can see, that is according to me, is that when Government takes action and arrest people who are corrupt, there is an outcry of people saying there is abuse of people by police and that people are being arrested without any case. If you do not arrest those people and you do not take them to book, people start crying again saying Government is neglecting and it is allowing people to do their own.
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