Whither Zimbabwean Civil Society?

Chimurenga Dzimbahwe

Zimbabwe’s fallout has proved beyond doubt that local
civil society, epitomized by ubiquitous human rights
Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs), lacks the
requisite political clout to challenge President
Robert Mugabe’s increasingly totalitarian rule. Civil
society’s capacity to build popular support for
democratic change people-centred change has been blown
out of proportion by outside donors, who continue to
religiously pour funds into the rather politically
innocuous sector.

It is not unreasonable to state that the very concept
of NGOs is antithetical to the organizational
expression of a popular struggle for a democratic and
publicly accountable government in Zimbabwe. For
instance, NGOs have been conspicuous by their absence
from many of the political demonstrations that have
been held since the beginning of the Zimbabwean
crisis. It appears that local civil society lacks the
capability to engage in direct mass action on the
streets against the authorities. The reason is people
who end up working in NGOs are not willing to be
sacrificial lambs for the cause of basic freedoms.

Zimbabwe’s urban educated elite appear to have
hijacked NGOs to such an extent that they have lost
currency and lack relevancy to broader society.
Despite the omnipresence of NGOs, nothing has
significantly improved in the realizations of people’s
basic rights. If at all, things have worsened for the
majority of the people politically, economically and
socially.

Clearly, NGO operations, fixedly characterized by five
star hotel workshops, meetings and conferences far
removed from the people, will not effect comprehensive
revolutionary changes needed to improve the lives of
the people. Neither will it impact qualitatively on
the style of governance.

Devoid of theory or ideology to guide them, NGOs see
their primary function as awareness raising and
advocacy in which people are passive, ignorant
subjects or victims incapable of struggling for their
rights, and end up mirroring the status quo. Little to
no consultation is carried out with broader society.
In effect, local NGOs largely depend on harping
neo-liberal concepts of democracy and human rights
that have no root whatsoever in the realities of
indigenous peoples.

While all human rights are universal human rights,
they require local forms of struggle for them to be
attained. In addition, while NGOs claim to be formed
by activists as non-political and non-partisan
organizations, they are usually formed outside the
social group that they are advocating for. As a
result, they function without any constituency,
accountable only to themselves and the foreign
financial donor.

The operational tools and ideologies employed by local
NGOs are merely borrowed from an international system
that supports an oppressive world order, and has
nurtured the current repressive regime of President
Mugabe. The absence of concrete ideology, mobilization
and campaign strategies has transformed civil society
into a mere reactionary force that lacks solid
indigenous support in the fight against President
Mugabe’s repressive governance.

The emergence of electronic communication (Internet,
E-mail, etc.) has further marginalized the grassroots
people. Consequently, NGO work has been reduced to a
dialogue among the local urbanized elite and their
international partners.

It is now apparent that Zimbabwean civil society is
all about fame, fun and funds at the expense of the
people. Organizations have been hijacked by do-gooders
that lack the capacity to tap into the people’s
struggle for peace, justice, freedom and economic
emancipation. Also, civil society has become the turf
of a struggle between the powerful elite, completely
obsessed by the West.

Zimbabwean NGOs need to understand that the efficacy
of donor-funded interventions can only be possible if
more focus is put on the local people rather than
international donor funders. In this respect, the
building of a longstanding democracy in Zimbabwe
cannot be separated from the real conditions of abject
poverty, underdevelopment, and marginalization that
affect the majority of the local people.

The current human rights focus of many of the
organizations in civil society has tended to turn a
blind eye to the economic disparities that exist in
the Zimbabwean society today. Further, too much
attention on President Mugabe and the human rights
abuses of his administration has resulted in a failure
to analyze and challenge the class divisions, which
determine the skewed distribution of resources in the
Zimbabwean society. Documentation of human rights
abuses, although important in its own right, has not
been transformed to challenge the social and political
relations in Zimbabwe.

In addition, NGOs are perceived as vehicles of
personal enrichment and advancement. The tendency of
NGOs to be self-appointed and unaccountable has been
the source of this perception. NGOs have cropped in
recent years with no clear agendas. Transparency,
accountability and openness are judged according to
maintenance of financial books, workshops, and
published documents that often times are left to
gather dust in office drawers.

It is necessary for local NGOs and their international
funders to understand that only a radical approach
will ensure the desired change in people’s lives and
livelihoods. Freedom is about power contests, and can
never be attained on a silver platter. It has to be
fought for, and NGOs should be prepared to go in front
of the firing line.

As it is, the generality of Zimbabwean people are
still unaffected by the actions of local civil
society, but wherever there is oppression, there is
bound to be resistance. Plainly, there is need for an
alternative model of NGOs that is sensitive to the
needs of the people. This alternative model needs to
be informed by indigenous knowledge systems, local
constraints and the people’s popular desire for basic
human rights.

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