Civic Society organisations in Zimbabwe have said that they have been dubbed the enemy of the state when they have instead been complimenting it.
ZimRights director Okay Machisa said the government was persecuting civic society organisations because they are critical of human rights violations by the government.
Speaking to the News Day this Monday, Machisa said that if pointing out evil deeds of the state was a crime, then civic society organisations in the country were as guilty as charged. He said:
NGOs have been labelled enemies of the State because (they) expose some of the bad sides of the government and I don’t see why we can wait to be sponsored by the US or anybody to tell the system that this is wrong, this is right. You don’t need to be sponsored to say that.
His remarks come when there are a number of civic society leaders who were arrested and charged with subversion of a constitutionally established government.
Recently, there was a leaked document which indicated that the state intended to stop workshops which it said were being sponsored by the USA to destabilise the country.
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