Staff Reporter

The European Union (EU) has poured USD1.7 billion in 116 African countries meant to propel their regime change agenda; top among those countries is Zimbabwe which is due for elections in 2023.

According to contact, placed within one of the CSOs, the funds will be drawn from the EU’s Neighbourhood Development and International Cooperation Instrument (NDICI) for democracy and human rights advocacy.

“There appears to be urgency within the EU delegation in Zimbabwe and USAID to ensure that money gets to Zimbabwe ahead of 2023 harmonised elections in order to execute their agenda successfully. 

“Over a month ago, USAID poured US$105million which it shared among its target organisations.

“CSOs that deal with democracy and governance received US470 million, devolution and support programs US$25 million and the ones that deal with media reforms received US$10million,” he said.

This is not the first time money has been poured into Zimbabwe’s Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and Non-governmental Organisations (NGOs) for purposes of destabilisation and causing disharmony.

Of the $105 million from USAID, the National Democratic Institute also received US$10million which it was ordered to hand over to the MDC Alliance led by Nelson Chamisa for purposes of advancing their electoral activities. 

Contact further indicated that a list of human rights activists and democracy defenders who will benefit from the EU fund is currently being drawn by the EU delegates.  Chief among them are Jacob Ngarivhume, Hopewell Chin’ono and the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR).

The selected organisations will then be expected to channel the proceeds towards mass mobilisation programs and to influence grassroots activism.

Political analysts have castigated such greediness by CSOs saying it exposes their double-standards and further exposes the West’s quest for regime change agenda ahead of the 2023 harmonised elections.