George Makoni

Service / Career

September 2011 – Advocacy Officer, Centre for Community Development in Zimbabwe. ^[1]

Events

The Cabinet of Zimbabwe Central Government issued a directive in 2014, putting a cap on salaries for local authorities’ employees. Top council executives also received unbudgeted allowances that saw CoH the city losing hundreds of thousands of dollars that could have been channelled to service delivery. Acting town clerk Josephine Ncube was suspended over the scam.

In November 2016, riot police broke up a demonstration at Town House, and arrested George Makoni. He was reportedly later fined $10 for criminal nuisance before being released. The demonstration was to deliver a petition demanding investigation of alleged corrupt activities, politicisation of land distribution, and demanded council come up with a plan of action to address poor service delivery, “obscene” salaries for top management, the plight of vendors and demolition of houses. All by 31 November. The petition was delivered by placard-waving protesters representing six organisations – among them [[[Residents’ Forum]], [Centre for Community Development in Zimbabwe]] (CCDZ) and Tajamuka, and residents petitioned the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (Zacc) to take action.

Although Mayor Bernard Manyenyeni said he had no problem with residents expressing their views. “We were not elected to come and do corrupt activities or to supervise corruption on management. We don’t support corruption, the city is for all of us and all we are trying to do is to bring transparency.” The police would have not allow this expression and more reinforcements were called to deal with the protesters. ^[2]

A demonstration at Town House in November 2016, did not begin as scheduled as riot police early-camped there waiting to pounce on their easy prey. Residents Forum and CCDZ had stormed Town House in protest demanding immediate answers and expulsion of Acting Town Clerk Josephine Ncube and top management following alleged corruption scandals. Police arrested Centre for Community Development in Zimbabwe (CCDZ) Advocacy Officer George Makoni despite Mayor Bernard Manyenyeni having given the disgruntled residents the go ahead to air their grievances. Makoni was later released and ordered to pay $10 fine after police charged him for criminal nuisance.

CCDZ said “We are not happy with corruption taking place here at town house, as you have heard the top management are being awarded hefty salaries while their subordinates are not getting nothing we have water challenges, waste is not being collected so on behalf of and other organisations we are saying this must come to an end” Denford Ngadziore who was representing Residents Forum called for the immediate expulsion of Acting Town Clerk Josephine Ncube. Ngadziore also revealed that Residents Forum and other organisation had already approached the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) to investigate corruption at town House.

CoH also awarded a tender of US$13.8m to an unregistered company for the rehabilitation of Firle Sewerage Works which was further presided over by unqualified councillors, an audit report tabled before a special council meeting revealed. ^[3]

In May 2019, four pro-democracy campaigners, George Makoni, Tatenda Mombeyarara, Gamuchirai Mukura and Nyasha Mpahlo, were arrested at Harare International Airport. They were accused of plotting to subvert President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government, and were denied bail when they appeared before magistrate Hosea Mujaya, where they were charged with subversion. They were represented by Jeremiah Bamu.

The State alleges that on 13 May 2019, the suspects, who are all members of various civic society organisations, allegedly connived with their accomplices, (who are still at large) and travelled to Maldives where the four participated in a meeting. They underwent a training workshop organised by a Serbian non-governmental organisation (NGO) called Centre for Applied Non-violent Action and Strategies (CANVAS) aimed at subverting a constitutionally elected government. During the workshop, the accused were trained on how to mobilise citizens to turn against the government and to engage in acts of civil disobedience and or resistance to any law during the anticipated national protest by anti-government movements, read part of the State’s papers. The accused were also trained on how to operate small arms and to evade arrest during civil unrest. The State also alleges that the quartet was taught basics of counter intelligence and acts of terrorism. Upon arrival and arrest at the airport, their laptops, cellphones and notes from the workshop, that contained the alleged subversive materials, were seized by the State. ^[4]

In June, the Center for Applied Non-Violent Action and Strategies (CANVAS) protested and released a statement with more details. All those arrested for subversion include George Makoni, Nyasha Frank Mpahlo, Tatenda Mombeyarara, Gamuchirai Mukura, Farirai Gumbonzvanda, Stabile Dewa, and Rita Nyampinga, seven (7) Zimbabwean civil society activists on their way home from attending a training workshop organized by CANVAS in the Maldives from May 15 to 19, 2019. The detainees have been denied bail so far with six remanded in prison and the seventh, Gamuchirai Mukura, remanded in a public hospital. The charges include: “subversion”, “counterintelligence”, and “being trained in use of small arms”. The activists could face up to twenty years in prison for these charges. The workshop focused on advocacy and civic engagement capacity building such as: Developing Shared Vision of Tomorrow; Civic Engagement; Effective Communications; Protecting Privacy and Security; and Organizational Planning. ^[5]

In February 2020, the judicial harassment of seven HRDs continues.

Further Reading

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