…Zimbabwe will prosper without Uncle Sam

By Elizabeth Sitotombe

THE recent suspension of US foreign development aid has sent shockwaves across civil society organisations (CSOs) and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Zimbabwe, many of which have long relied on funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Just hours after his inauguration, President Donald Trump issued an executive order suspending all US foreign assistance programmes for 90 days while a review is undertaken to ensure that all aid is aligned to US foreign policy.

“All department and agency heads responsible for US foreign development aid programmes are to immediately halt new activities and expenditures for development aid,” read part of the order, which goes on to add: 

“For existing foreign assistance awards, contracting officers and grant officers shall immediately issue stop-work orders, consistent with the terms of the relevant award, until such a time as the Secretary [of State] shall determine, following a review. Decisions whether to continue, modify or terminate programmes will be made following this review, no new requests for proposal, notices of funding opportunities, or any other solicitation or request for foreign assistance funding should be published by the State Department or USAID.”

This was confirmed in an email addressed to to local NGOs implementing US-funded programmes. Wrote the country programme manager for the International Republican Institute (IRI),  Delta Sivalo,  “. . . this includes the payment of sub awards and contracts, field based activities. We understand this is difficult and unsettling, however, the Institute is confident the issue will be resolved in time”.

 Trump was quick to add: “We will measure our success not only by the battles we win, but also by the wars we end and perhaps most importantly the wars we never get into.”  America’s 47th President unwittingly admitted that the US government had reached a point where it could not manage a simple crisis at home while continuously stumbling into a catalogue of catastrophic events abroad.

“We have a government that has given unlimited funding to the defence of foreign borders but refuse to defend American borders or, more importantly its own people,” noted the bellicose Trump.

Perhaps this is the opening that Uncle Sam needs to graciously bow out from his continued futile onslaught on Zimbabwe. After all, in his speech he did say he wanted to be a peacemaker and not a warmonger. 

While Zimbabwe appreciates Washington’s so-called ‘humanitarian aid’, it is an open secret that regime change has always been at the top of Uncle Sam’s to-do list. Needless to say, this has been a losing battle right from day one.  Instead of nurturing partnerships that prioritise innovation and mutual benefit, the head of the Republican Party is busy sharpening his daggers.

To Trump, we say, ‘Forget the grudges and do away with the role of aggressor. This is your golden opportunity to right a historical wrong, aligning US policy with the principles of natural justice and mutual respect and in the process save the US millions, if not billions’.

That said, Trump’s latest action is a wake-up call for Africa at large and Zimbabwe, in particular. Now that the US has cut off all foreign aid for the next three months, does that mean the end of the world for Africa and other developing nations?

 The answer is an unequivocal ‘No’!.

In reality, Africa can, in fact, stand on its own. Warning about the dangers of dependency, Dambisa Moyo says in Dead Aid:  “In the past 50 years, over US$1 trillion in development-related aid has been transferred from Western countries to Africa, millions march for it, governments are judged for by it. But has more than US$1 trillion in development assistance over the last several decades made African people better off? No, in fact, across the globe recipients of this aid are worse (off). Most of the aid comes with conditions.”

 “. . . Aid took on an added dimension; not how deserving a country might be or the nature of its leadership, but rather the willingness of a desperately impoverished country to ally itself with one camp or another.”

The truth is Africa can stand on its own two feet.  With all the wealth in most of these countries, what the continent needs is development, not activism.

For years, the US government through its proxy, USAID, has been funnelling billions of dollars through civil society organisations allegedly for ‘for humanitarian purposes’ in Zimbabwe. If not for ‘humanitarian purposes’ then it’s for the purposes of    ‘safeguarding human rights and promoting democracy’ through such conduits as the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), the National Democratic Institute (NDI) and the International Republican Institute (IRI), among others. 

Nonetheless, USAID remains the hub of Washington’s destabilisation activities, as catalogued below:

In February 2015, USAID launched a full-scale investigation into the conduct of leaders of NGOs who had looted a staggering US$850 million meant for regime change activities. 

In 2018, USAID terminated funding from the Counselling Services Unit (CSU) and the Election Resource Centre (ERC) on allegations of mismanagement of funds. In 2020, again USAID had to withdraw funding for several local CSOs after an audit unearthed massive embezzlement of funds.

In 2022, about 120 Motorola mobile phones, said to have been sent to ‘young’ Zimbabweans from the Carter Foundation (founded by the late Jimmy Carter) via USAID, were intercepted at the Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport by the country’s security forces.

Curiously, USAID never takes measures to get the accused arrested despite all the noise they make about transparency but will instead take steps to shield them from prosecution and then ‘replace’ the looters with other leaky hands.

Having poured huge amounts of money into the permeable hands of their cohorts since 2000, and which money was duly looted, Uncle Sam has yet to grasp the significant lesson that theirs is a lost cause. 

 ZESN and the Election Resource Centre (ERC) received US$537 000 and US$577 000 respectively from USAID through NDI to run a parallel voter tabulation process they called ‘Sample Based Observation’ in the last elections. 

But this was an exercise in futility as ZANU PF romped to a landslide victory. 

On the other hand, in 2022, IRI was given US$400 000 by NED to carry out its promotion of ‘civic awareness and action to counter disinformation’. 

IRI works with a number of CSOs and media partners (names withheld) and all those championing to increase awareness around what they allege to be ‘inaccurate information disseminated by and through State-sponsored media outlets’.

All said and done, NED channels more than 1 600 grants every year to NGOs in in over 90 countries working to advance purported democratic goals and strengthen democratic institutions. 

Editor’s Note: The Trump Administration has since made a U-turn on its 90-day aid freeze and has since ordered a resumption in the supply of critical HIV drugs and payment of salaries for nurses on USAID’s payroll.