Civil society behaving unethically

different shapes and sizes.
Some are large scale in nature and others are small. They cover education, charity, community, professional groupings, trade unions, opinion groups and religious institutions of all sizes.
The creation and existence of these voluntary groupings and organisations to accomplish some public purpose is a distinguishing feature of national cohesion and development.
Civil organisations are a source of national innovation, and a continually adaptable means of responding to emerging ideas, interests and collective aspirations of a country’s citizenry.
They are strong watchdogs and pressure groups on Government operations and are a source of national achievement particularly in the areas of upholding civil rights and promoting development at grassroots level.
Zimbabwe’s civil society has for some time been at the centre of accusations by stakeholders of abusing donor funds.
The concerned voices about the abuse have been raised particularly in the last decade.
The environment saw many civil rights groups sprouting up and donor funding being impulsively poured into their coffers ostensibly to promote human rights and the democratisation of political governance processes in the country.
Stakeholders bemoan that most of these donor funds were not channelled to funding operations of these organisations, or improving the lives of the intended beneficiaries but ended up in the pockets of those in leadership.
According to a paper written by Paul Rumema Chimhosva and posted on the zimbabwejournalists.com: “There is not one leader in the change movement whose individual net worth has not dramatically improved since the escalation of the Zimbabwe crisis with the formation of the MDC in 1999.
“These leaders have children that are attending private schools and foreign universities on the very same resources made available to facilitate the democracy and human rights struggle of the Zimbabwean people.
“Some have holiday houses in Cape Town and other exotic places around the globe through selling out on the people’s struggle.
“They shed crocodile tears on behalf of the people of Zimbabwe and get heftily paid for it.”
The sad thing is that this is all happening in the eyes of the public.
No wonder there is inertia and a complete disengagement from civic activities by the general public in the country because of widespread disillusionment with the uncouth activities of these so-called advocates of human rights and democracy.
By refusing to participate in their money-spinning public protest activities, people are simply saying they have had enough of the abuse, and it’s time this crop of civil society leadership steps aside and pave way for honest and responsible leadership that can inspire full public participation in civil matters.
These self-proclaimed democracy and human rights champions have clearly let down the people of Zimbabwe and rightly so.
Today they stand out in the eyes of the public as sheep in wolf’s skin masquerading as saviours of the people while they clandestinely engage in uncouth and self-enrichment escapades preying on susceptible donor funds.
They have become obstacles to genuine social change.
The dishonest “democracy” proponents covertly shun new entrants on the scene.
They belong to a cartel of self-proclaimed authority on democracy and human rights in the country.
In their social circles and networks they deludingly view themselves as the undisputed front men and women for human rights and democracy struggle in Zimbabwe, and through hook and crook, they present this image to the gullible donor community which unfortunately is quick to sing their deceiving tune.
These are the same leaders who today naively bemoan the level of public disengagement in civic matters forgetting the role they have played in creating that public cynicism.
During the heat of political conflict in the last decade, the country at some point witnessed clearly stage-managed public demonstrations in the streets of Harare which involved a few hired demonstrators; an uncouth behaviour that became associated with the name of one prominent lawyer and academic in the sector.
The “demo mercenaries” would on sight of a single truckload of police officers coming to quell the demonstration quickly melt away in a flash at the speed of lightning only to regroup at the offices of the demo sponsors to claim their payments. Their cause for participation was never intrinsic.
But expectedly for the leaders, the job will have been done as the demonstration is followed by arrests of its leaders and a few other demonstrators, with news clips in the foreign Press screaming “democracy and human rights defenders” are being persecuted in Zimbabwe.
The subsequent response of the donor community would be an impulsive injection of more funds in defence of the “gallant fighters”.
But how oblivious really is the foreign donor community to the unethical practices of this crop of civil society leaders in the country?
Paul Chimhosva further argues in his paper that the donor community is well aware of the misuse of resources in the civil society, but their intention is to create a deliberate brain dead and docile crop of leadership that is amenable to compromising the century-old aspirations of the people of Zimbabwe for an equal society.
He further asserts that false human rights and democracy leaders represent a deliberate political dummy being sold to Zimbabwe by the foreign donor community.
The civil society including NGOs should uphold clear standards of ethical practice that preserve public confidence.
Public trust is key to successfully running these organisations. Improper or unethical conduct by an individual organisation in the sector has a permeating effect on the credibility of the whole sector.
There should be a common understanding of transparency, accountability and good governance for the sector as a whole.
Donor funding needs to be properly accounted for and controlling bodies of these groupings should compel the individual organisations to produce audited financial reports at some point in time with this information being disclosed to the donor community itself and all stakeholders.
l Bradwell Mhonderwa is the Managing Consultant of Business Ethics Centre, a Corporate Governance and Business Ethics Management firm. Phone 04-293 2948, 0712 420 090,
0772 913 875, or email [email protected]