BY TAFADZWA KACHIKO A KUWAIT government-funded organisation, DirectAid (formerly African Muslims Agency) has been deregistered after it embarked on a schools construction programme contrary to its mandate.
The deregistration comes as government is amending the Private and Voluntary Organisations (PVO) Bill that seeks to regulate the operations of civic groups, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and trusts.
DirectAid Zimbabwe office administrator Sheikh Anubi Twaibu told NewsDay that a notice of deregistration was published in the Government Gazette in February this year.
“Our organisation was deregistered on grounds of not working according to agreed objectives. According to our memorandum of understanding with the government, we were supposed to assist disadvantaged children only,” Twaibu said.
He added: “This started in 2018 when we applied to renew our PVO amendment objectives. From then, there was no response from the ministry till we received a notice of deregistration in 2021.
“We wrote a comment in response saying we needed to operate, we have schools and orphans. We were going to argue that by education materials, we also referred to schools. But we were still deregistered and it was put in the Government Gazette on February 4 this year.”
Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare minister Paul Mavima yesterday said he was not aware of the circumstances surrounding the deregistration of DirectAid.
“Who deregistered them? Unfortunately, I am at a workshop and I can’t answer that at the moment without looking at a file,” Mavima said.
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The organisation has constructed schools in Norton, Gutu and Mvurwi.
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