Fiesty First Lady Grace Mugabe on Wednesday blasted non-governmental organisations (NGOs), accusing them of diverting money meant for their projects to “sinister” activities.
BY OBEY MANAYITI
Grace made the remarks at Chimhanda Secondary School in Rushinga where she donated tonnes of maize and fertiliser, among other things.
She said NGOs should stick to their terms of references and not interfere in domestic processes.
“No one will interfere with them as long as they don’t interfere with what we want here in Zimbabwe,” Grace said, amid wild cheers from the thousands of Zanu PF supporters.
“Most NGOs are sent. Some will say we have such a programme we want to do for Zimbabwe and we have put such an amount, but surely that money will not be used for the intended purposes. They will find their own people, whom they will pay a lot of money as expatriates and no money will come for those projects.”
The First Lady said the country should be wary of people, who came by night to do sinister activities under the guise of NGO work.
She said President Robert Mugabe raised the issue at an Ebola conference in New York, in the United States, recently, as he was also unhappy with how some NGOs operated.
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This is not the first time NGOs have come under fire from Zanu PF officials, as Mugabe often accuses them of burning the midnight oil planning regime change.
The country is in serious need of food aid and most of the assistance is coming from the donor community, as Zimbabwe has no financial capacity to feed the nation.
In the event that they pull out, Zimbabwe will be left in a lurch, as persistent droughts have affected the agricultural sector.
Thousands of people have been attending Grace’s rallies, where she doles out goodies amid reports of stampedes to get a share of the donations.
In Rushinga, haulage trucks, full of people, continued arriving way after Grace had finished her address.
Grace once again appealed to people to avoid political uprisings, such as the Arab Springs which toppled the leaders of Libya, Tunisia and Egypt.
