UNITED States based and Zimbabwean opposition activist, Freeman Chari's Citizens Initiative (CI) has announced its withdrawal from a development project in Chingwizi, Masvingo province where it had begun construction of classroom blocks citing political interference.
CI aimed to build classroom blocks at Chingwizi Primary School in Masvingo, Mwenezi district.
According to Chari, the project faced bureaucratic obstacles such as a series of delays and changing conditions imposed by local authorities over a period of five months and this is despite their initial support.
CI had three meetings with Mwenezi district officials and was given clearance on November 6, and started delivering building materials on November 18.
However, the project had to stop after Mwenezi Rural District Council chief executive officer and the development coordinator ordered suspension until a meeting was held on November 21, where CI emphasised the project was non-partisan and non political and they agreed the project must continue only to be informed days later that new conditions had been imposed.
Permanent Secretary in the Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC) for Masvingo Province, Addmore Pazvakavambwa told CI to register as a Private Voluntary Organisation (PVO) and channel resources through the local council.
"We were asked to register as a PVO, a process that has many other requirements and also takes a long time. In the meantime, they asked us to channel resources through the council.
"Both these conditions are hard for us to abide by given that we have no intentions of managing another entity. Secondly channeling resources through council will create another layer of bureaucracy that we have no control over.
"We have already established efficient ways to use the meagre resources we have and roping in council will balloon our expenses. We also will not be able to control and account for the resources to our donors. The request for endless meetings has already forced us to burn through 12% of what we had raised for the first block," Chari said.
Chari added: "After consulting with the CI board, we have resolved to withdraw from the project and donate the materials we had already purchased to Chingwizi Primary School.
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"Although we have been successful in working in other provinces, this is not the first time we have faced this. We faced similar issues in Masvingo Province when we wanted to do the Clinic in January 2020. We also had to give up on building a home for Mt Hampden kids in 2021, we had to withdraw from the Gwelutshena School project in Nkayi in 2022.
"It breaks our hearts to be unable to fulfill the wishes of our ordinary donors who put in their hard earned money just so that the 662 children have a decent learning space. It was beyond our control, and we tried our best."
