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 Here's the story: We sat down with a man who had a harrowing journey with addiction. He began by telling us about his early days in tertiary education, where he would occasionally smoke dagga with friends. However, his focus remained on his studies, and he worked hard to graduate and secure a qualification. After landing a job, he started building a life for himself. He got married, bought a property, and even splurged on a car. Life was good, and he felt like he was on top of the world. But one fateful night, while out with friends, he was introduced to heavier narcotics. At first, the experience was exhilarating. He described it as an elevation from the mild high of dagga to a level 5 high, where he felt invincible and euphoric. The effects would last for days, allowing him to party from Friday to Sunday without sleep. The problem, however, began to manifest on Mondays and Tuesdays every week, when the withdrawal symptoms would kick in, and he'd struggle to function at work....

Zimbabwean authorities order NGO to close its doors

 

28 April 2021 - 18:31BY LENIN NDEBELE AND JOHN NCUBE
Connect, a family therapy and counselling training organisation in Manicaland, was told to close. Stock photo.
Connect, a family therapy and counselling training organisation in Manicaland, was told to close. Stock photo.
Image: 123RF/antstang

Zimbabwean authorities have ordered a non-governmental organisation to shut shop, resurfacing fears that the state is targeting NGOs it believes are pushing a political agenda.

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Connect, a family therapy and counselling training organisation based in the Mutasa district in Manicaland, was told to close its doors.

Government authorities in Manicaland delivered a letter to the organisation on Monday to inform them that their operations should be stopped.

“You are required to stop operations with immediate effect,” read part of the letter.

‘We’re watching you’: Zim’s Mnangagwa guns for ‘hostile’ NGOs

Sarudzai Samungure, the ‎community services officer for the Mutasa Rural District Council, who wrote the letter, said the local authority suspended Connect's operations after a meeting with the organisation on March 19.

It was not immediately clear what Connect had done for its operations to be suspended in the Mutasa district. Samungure emphasised in her letter that Connect’s “co-operation in this matter will highly be appreciated”.

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This comes a day after the state-controlled Herald newspaper published a story saying that “dubious NGOs” were “at it again”, accusing them of “selling diplomats false tales to attract funding”.

Connect is the first NGO to be banned by Zimbabwean authorities this year. The last was the Community Tolerance Reconciliation and Development Trust (COTRAD) from Masvingo, in March 2019.

COTRAD’s ban was set aside by justice Loice Matanda-Moyo, who served as a high court judge at the time after Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights filed an urgent application challenging the district administrator’s decision to outlaw the NGO’s operations.

TimesLIVE reported in October 2020 that Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa vowed to deregister any NGO suspected of plotting to overthrow his government, and said the state was spying on “people of interest”.

NGO bans hark back to the Mugabe era. He would ban NGOs ahead of elections, making it difficult for the outside world to provide humanitarian assistance or monitor polls.

In 2008, at the height of Zimbabwe’s political and economic crisis, the government outlawed food aid agencies. The ban was reversed in 2009 after Mugabe was forced to form a coalition government with the late Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC T.

TimesLIVE


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