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Donors dump Madhuku
By Wendy Muperi
THE National Constitutional Assembly has been abandoned by its traditional donors and is failing to mobilise support against the Constitutional Parliamentary Committee.
Addressing journalists in Harare yesterday, NCA president Dr Lovemore Madhuku admitted that donors had turned their backs on his organisation and preferred working with Copac.
"Our traditional donors have openly abandoned us and we have failed to persuade them to come back to support us. Our only option is to turn to our members for financial support as we continue with the struggle for a people-driven constitution," he said.
The NCA held a strategic planning meeting last weekend to try and map a way forward.
Dr Madhuku said members would have to pay subscription fees to create a financial base for the organisation.
"The meeting resolved that NCA shall not be dependent on Western donor resources and therefore calls upon the membership to pay subscriptions to sustain the organisation."
He said the meeting resolved to work with like-minded organisations like the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, the Zimbabwe National Students’ Union and individuals.
Dr Madhuku reiterated his call, which has found few takers in past months, for civil society to snub the inclusive Government.
Noting the malaise gripping the NCA, he said the organisation should "re-organise itself, rationalise its structures, embark on an intensive membership recruitment drive, realigning the organisation to its founding values and traditions, namely building mass membership and ensuring that all structures are fully functional".
Dr Madhuku admitted that Copac was "unstoppable".
"If only we had power like God’s, it would have been easy. We would completely destroy Copac like God used to do in biblical times, but we cannot."
Dr Madhuku claimed that Copac would not succeed as it was influenced by political leaders and donors.
The NCA has launched campaigns against Copac agitating for a "No vote" when the referendum on the constitution is held.
The pressure group says it is drafting its own constitution.
NCA is a non-governmental organisation formed in 1997 comprising individuals working with civil organisations, student, youth and women’s groups and some churches.
Dr Madhuku has been working against all Government efforts to draft a new constitution.
His efforts have in the past ironically been rewarded by the very same organisations and institutions that have now forsaken him.
Dr Madhuku has received awards such as the 2001 Civic Courage Award and the North Corte Parkinson Fund in 2004 among others.
He got thousands of dollars for these awards.
Some of the organisations that have abandoned him include Sida and Usaid, who are directing their resources to Copac. |
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