Open letter to Mr McDonald Lewanika
By Pride Mkono
Comradely greetings!
I am sure you are aware that in ordinary circumstances this comrade would have loved to exchange with you some new season’s pleasantries but however given the gravity of the matter at hand that would not be possible.
The matter at hand concerns the organisation whose leadership you have been part of for close to a decade, approximately a third of Mugabe’s rule, the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition.
Indeed you have served the coalition in various capacities from when you were its Youth Committee Chair, then Spokesperson, then Chairperson and currently Director, a post you have held for a record 5 years.
I will thus not waste much time and go straight to the objective material of this epistle to you Mr Lewanika, which is to tell you forth with that your time with the Coalition is clearly up!
Firstly Mr Lewanika, you are aware of the challenges that the coalition is going through, emanating from various issues that for a long time have been swept under the carpet.
Mr Lewanika you are aware of the controversy surrounding the circumstance under which you assumed your current role as Director of the coalition, in fact one can argue that it was corporate incest where yourself as Board Chairperson suddenly mutated and appeared as a Director. In basic corporate governance this is unacceptable as it clearly stinks with vested personal interests.
However you fought your way and assumed the Directorship and the world watched as you steered the Crisis Coalition ship in the perilous waters of Zimbabwean civic political relations for 5 solid years.
Now given this background and the crisis confronting the organisation it is only prudent that you step down not just for others to get a chance for leadership but for you to try new challenges as well.
Remember in the history of the organisation no Director has stayed as long as you have done, you can’t be a sacred cow and neither have you been an exceptional genius.
Secondly Mr Lewanika, your tenure as Director of the coalition has been the most unsatisfying for the membership given that all the major campaigns you attempted to coordinate ended up as huge failures. Talk of the ill-fated Global Advocacy Campaign and the ‘FeyaFeya” Campaign that became an avenue for large scale looting.
Except for a few research papers which appeared to carry some relevant content, your programmatic thrust as Director was a huge let down to the expectant population of Zimbabwe.
This is especially so given that you led the coalition during one of the most historically significant moments of the struggle for democracy in Zimbabwe, the Government of National Unity era. However you failed to correctly position the voice of civic society and advance the reform agenda hence Zimbabwe is still stuck in the current political mud that it has been mired in prior to the GNU.
In fact during your era it appears you passively or even actively colluded with political actors to demobilise civic society. Now, given all this the only logical step is for you to step down as Director and allow new minds with new ideas to occupy the post and steer the Coalition forward.
Thirdly, Mr Lewanika how do you hope to clear your name and indeed that of the organisation from the mess of negligence which a competent audit has confirmed you presided over.
Your failure to exercise due diligence in dealing with basic issues such as tax remittances cost the coalition a whopping US$22.167 while your deliberate negligence to submit Value Added Tax returns to the USAID mission as required by the USAID regulations can potentially result in funding withdrawal for the institution.
Further your failure to abide by set organisational procedures that any purchase over US$30.000 must be taken to tender is clear testimony of how you have suddenly grown bigger than the institution.
Surely how can an institutional leader fail to abide by such clear guidelines and what is more worrying, even frightening, from your actions is that what other actions outside set procedure did you undertake or allowed your subordinates to take since you had set the example? This is a worrying question whose only logical answer is not an explanation but the simple action of stepping down.
It is clear now Mr Lewanika that with all these allegations against you the best foot forward is for you to step down and preserve the little dignity that has remained of your person and indeed allow the institution to move forward. Certainly we are worried as members and more importantly as democrats about the conduct you have shown.
Even your colleagues who work for the funding partners must be sincere to tell you that these funds are tax payers monies and if it was to be known as is now the case that they were negligently handled and or abused the consequences would not be good for many people who have invested their trust in you and the organisation as the flagship of democratisation in Zimbabwe.
Fourthly Mr Lewanika, how do you hope to continue being relevant when you are attempting to subvert a legitimate decision of a bona fide and democratically elected Board that in light of all the above and many other misdoings you cannot continue to serve the institution when your contract expired on December 31, 2014.
It is now on public record that a bona fide and properly constituted Board after reviewing all these and other issues which include the case where you awarded yourself a full salary and full benefits while you were on study leave, correctly decided that your tenure as Director is up. Now the talk of you attempting to stoop so low as to award yourself a contract is a clear cardinal sin which conscious members will not take lightly.
The Board in its accurate and sympathetic rationalisation arrived at the decision not to immediately dismiss you and institute an investigation but to take the cautionary and respectful route of allowing your contract to expire and then you can leave with the dignity you deserve after so many years of service for the organisation.
In light of this the Board on the 10th of October 2014 by a majority decision resolved that your services would no longer be required at the coalition post 31 December 2014. Your actions however have shown that you lack the basic respect of procedure and want to drag the entire institution with you.
Yes Mr Lewanika, yourself working in cahoots with a minority of Board members which include Mr Mlilo, the long-resigned Ms Khumalo and one Mr Dube, who is currently caught up in a fraud scandal with a funding partner, have come up with an elaborate plan to stay in power ostensibly for purposes of covering up your dirt.
This Mr Lewanika is intolerable especially in light of how the Board has been merciful with your otherwise wayward conduct which also include forgery. Yes, you Mr Lewanika approached the former Chairperson of the coalition Mr Machisa and asked him to sign the audit management letter when he had no locus standi to do so, in simple language you instituted forgery.
To add insult to injury Mr Lewanika, you finally crossed the Rubicon line when you acting in cahoots with the discredited Mr Mlilo connived and pumped out thousands of dollars to call for a bogus and illegitimate Special General Meeting where you wanted to liquidate the Board Chairperson and all other Board members who had passed a decision that because of your conduct your contract will not be renewed.
The meeting never came to pass, thanks to vigilant and alert members of the coalition and now you want to continue with your machinations in other avenues.
Let it be known to you Mr Lewanika that the action you took on 17 November 2014 of attempting to subvert the popular will of the membership using money is no different from the vote buying you accuse ZANU PF of in fact it makes you and your cabal worse than ZANU PF.
Your actions have further thrown you directly into the political dojo of the organisation and now you must face the consequences without feigning innocence.
In light of all this your best move is to listen to the voice of reason as set out in the Board resolution of October 10, 2014 and move on in this new glorious year and salvage some respect for your buttered image. If however you chose to remain obdurate and intransigent then you must prepare yourself for an embarrassing exit.
I would further repeat now, as I round off, that Mr Lewanika the interests of Zimbabwe and its future are too vast and by far more important that your selfish and group interests as a self-styled ‘cabal’.
I would further remind you or even better warn you that a threat to democracy anywhere is a threat to democracy everywhere and it will be fought. Fought hard it will be!
Comradely
Pride Mkono
Pride Mkono is a Former Student leader, Environmental and Social Activist; He can be reached at [email protected]
