NCA on the brink of collapse

by Staff reporter

2012 April 26 08:10:52 | 1711 Views

THE National Constitutional Assembly is teetering on the brink of collapse as donors have reportedly stopped funding it.

No money has been flowing and workers at NCA headquarters in Harare were two weeks ago sent on unpaid leave and advised to work from home.

The workers confirmed that NCA has been facing financial challenges for the past year and was failing to pay them on time.

NCA has at least 20 workers at its remaining offices countrywide.

"The organisation has been facing financial difficulties for quite some time now and a fortnight ago all employees at the headquarters at Bumbiro House were sent on forced leave.

"The organisation has been struggling to pay us in the past two years with most donors preferring to support the writing of the new Constitution led by the Parliamentary Select Committee," one of the workers said yesterday.

NCA chairman Professor Lovemore Madhuku confirmed that they had sent workers home.

"There is nothing like that (ceasing operations), we are just going through liquidity problems like anyone else in the coun-try.

"We have asked workers to work from home if they have problems with bus fare because of the late payment of salaries.

"The NCA cannot cease its operations because we are just like a political party or a church," he said.

Prof Madhuku said NCA relied on donor funds.

"We have had a structure that is reliant on donor funds and was established on the assumption that the donor funds would continue to come in.

"We are restructuring and hope to overcome the current challenges," he said.

Another worker, who also declined to be named, said the organisation's Mutare and Bulawayo offices were closed due to financial challenges.

There was no activity at NCA headquarters when The Herald visited it yesterday.

A few vehicles were parked in the yard while the offices were unmanned.

NCA was founded in 1997 comprising pressure groups, including the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions.

The organisation is funded by groups linked to the regime change agenda and is a close ally of the MDC-T.

Prof Madhuku has been arrested on several occasions for organising unsanctioned demonstrations over Constitutional matters.

His organisation and MDC-T campaigned for a no-vote in the February 2000 referendum that resulted in the Draft Constitution being rejected by the people.

This time donors have decided to fund the inclusive Government-sponsored Constitution-making process, leaving NCA in a quandary.

Collapse NCA

Source: TH