CCDZ prepare people for referendum, elections … as voter apathy grows

One of the core activities of CCDZ is to educate voters about their rights and the importance participating in elections. The director, Philip Pasirayi, told The Zimbabwean about the NGO’s objectives, challenges encountered and successes so far in its struggle to democratize Zimbabwean politics:

“Recent research by the Mass Public Opinion Research predicted widespread voter apathy due to political intimidation. Voter fatigue was suspected to be a major contributing factor to the apathy. Part of the electorate felt that its previous ballot failed to make any difference, as it was either not respected or stolen.

“CCDZ was formed in 2004 but became fully operational in 2008. Our role is to prepare people for the coming referendum and subsequent election. We educate people that every citizen has a birth right to participate in politics either as a voter or candidate. In a democracy, progressive people would only contribute in a dignified and developmental way towards political activity. No one should offer his services to agents of doom as a tool of human and property destruction.

“Our education campaigns target all political and social stakeholders – political parties, churches, traditional leadership, community based organizations, war veterans, state security agents, youth militia, government institutions at local levels such as police, other relevant government departments and JOMIC. Each stakeholder is conscientized about the importance of his full discharge of duty as expected and help stem violence and political intolerance.

“The awareness and capacity building campaign takes different forms. To help speedily socialize communities into responsible and constructive citizens, we would convene focus group discussions for youth, women and men. Other media such as road show, drama, public quiz show, music shows, social sports are used as a forum for the exchange of ideas. “Public participation in this regard has been overwhelming. As both a tool and incentive in the campaign, participants are given campaign T-Shirts.

“Politics in this country remains highly polarized and dangerous – mainly as a result of past violence and impunity. Participants are not classified in categories such as victims and perpetrators, but all are regarded as equal members of the community. We do not apportion blame to anyone as our objective is to chart the way forward.

“As a civil society family, we remained optimistic and convinced that Zimbabweans have the capacity to define their destiny in a peaceful and progressive manner. We have also conducted capacity building workshops for the new civic leadership.

“The majority of elected civic leadership such as local government councilors lacked leadership and management skills when they came into office. Soon after the inauguration of the Government of National Unity in 2009, we conducted nationwide capacity building workshops for the councilors.

“We equipped them with essential skills in areas such as good leadership, human rights, decision making, anti-corruption behavior, gender issues, legal framework and finance budgeting among other pre-requisite leadership skills.

“We engage constituents to build their capacity and better position them to demand responsive leadership, quality service delivery, accountability and transparency from elected civic leadership. They are also be educated about their human rights and right to recall non-performing, corrupt and wayward civic leadership.

“Traditional leadership, which was partly blamed for political violence in the past, was taken aboard CCDZ campaigns. As the custodian of culture, human rights and agents of development, traditional leadership is expected to be non-partisan. We have engaged them in workshops aimed at encouraging them to desist from being used as political tools in violation of the rights of their subjects by selfish political leadership.

“Traditional leadership is a strategically positioned agent of social, political and economic development, hence the need for non-partisan behavior. Accusations of traditional leadership which denied suspected political rivals access to agriculture inputs and relief food were common place. They also remained soiled by accusations of participating in heinous political crimes, mainly during the disputed June 2008 election.

“Though CCDZ campaigns continued to face challenges from pockets of some hostile vigilant groups, it was encouraging to note that part of the traditional leadership fully embraced the capacity and peace building campaigns. We continued to make inroads into former no go areas regardless.

“CCDZ and other civic groups’ activities have not been without challenges, as they were marred by violence. Some suspected hired Zanu (PF) thugs invaded a recent peace campaign at Nyambara Primary School and disrupted the proceedings. They ridiculously declared the gathering illegal, as they said it had no clearance from Ministry of National Healing and Constitutional Affairs.

“The rowdy invaders went on to interrogate CCDZ officials. It took the guts and intervention of human rights lawyers, for the CCDZ officials to safely reintegrate back into the community. We face similar hostile challenges in Marondera, Mudzi, Uzumba, Hwedza among other no go areas. Hostile groups warn residents and villagers against participating in the peace process.”